How depressing to read Anti-Bullying Alliance research this week revealing that one in five primary school children have been bullied online.

Arriving the same week as the terrible story of Rosimeiri Boxall, who jumped to her death to escape vicious bullying by two teenage girls, the figures painted a gruesome picture of what it’s like to be young and vulnerable in our country. And yet, if we consider the absolute staples of our cultural life — I’m a Celebrity, The X Factor, Big Brother and their endorsing tabloid newspapers — these awful stories shouldn’t surprise us at all.

Quite apart from those irresponsible, lazy parents who let children as young as seven loose on social networking sites, it’s entirely predictable that innocents just out of nappies are being bullied. They’re growing up in a world where verbal abuse and humiliation of the defenceless aren’t just commonplace, they’re celebrated as the touchstones of popular culture.

British TV has become a huge playground and the old school rules apply — power lies with the most aggressive ‘popular’ people, and the more that power is used against the little folk, the stronger it grows. There is no TV genre as over-subscribed as ‘family’ programmes which depend on emotionally fragile people volunteering themselves for scrutiny. And there are simply too many of these shows hammering home the same principles for them not to have a slow-release, pernicious affect on the population who consume them night after night, like tiny-brained gawping goldfish.

Whether it’s Jeremy Kyle, The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent or Strictly Come Dancing, the premise is the same — a group of self-appointed superiors (or just one in Kyle’s case) with a reputation for ruthlessness sit in judgment of some lesser mortals and pounce on their mistakes and frailties. Sometimes they do it in front of a baying audience who have bought into the idea that anything other than honesty (ie cruelty and mockery) is a sell-out. The atmosphere is charged, and rather reminiscent of the last scene in Braveheart, or probably any other public execution.

I was appalled when I saw 10-year-old Hollie Steel break down in tears in mid-song during Britain’s Got Talent, her hands quivering with fear and disappointment, but that was nothing compared to the horror I felt when I read endless messages on Bebo calling her a pathetic loser and other, unprintable things — comments which I guess the teenage contributors thought gave them Cowell or Revel Horwood-esque kudos.

Equally as insidious are those shows which champion merciless self-absorption and reinforce the notion that kindness is a weakness and empathy a failing of ambition. The Apprentice is an obvious example of this, as are Big Brother and teen favourite Britain’s Next Top Model, edited to highlight divisions amongst the bitchiest competitors and their haunted teary-eyed victims.

The breeding effect of this bullying culture was beautifully demonstrated this week on I’m a Celebrity when Jordan — a woman who has always displayed the human empathy of a haddock, and has the dead-eyes stare to match — finally allowed her icy persona to drop and revealed that she was deeply hurt by the death of her marriage. The caring public’s response? To repeatedly vote to subject her to torturous Bushtucker Trials. Simply put, they wanted to watch her suffer.

Sadly, unlike William Wallace, Jordan had no final inspirational words of courage that might have troubled her oppressors’ consciences. So they’ll probably do it again tonight.