I’m in the second year of my PhD. My research is on young children’s reporting of peers’ behaviour. This is the phenomenon known as “tattling” in the US, or “telling tales” over here. I have used a mix of participant observation and behavioral ecology to study tattling in two Belfast pre-schools. I have also conducted an experiment with some of the kids to see how well they recall various types of social and non-social information, and am planning some more experiments for the autumn. My work is informed by an evolutionary perspective: I see tattling as an early example of an innovative human tendency to resolve disputes by bringing them into the public sphere, rather than by direct one-on-one confrontation. In this respect, tattling is similar to gossip in adults, but there are important differences there too. I hope that analysis of the similarities and differences between the way adults and children talk about other people’s behaviour can lead to insights about the evolution of uniquely human social cognitive structures.