Bullying

About Bullying

Within our society bullying has taken on epidemic proportions, with thousands of children and young people reporting that they have been bullied. Nationally, Childline often publicise bullying to be the most common problem they receive calls about, with numbers rising each year. Locally, recent research by BulliesOut found that 66 percent of children reported they had been bullied. Eighty-six percent of bullying incidents were reported to have occurred at school. Bullying creates an environment of fear and every day in our schools children are teased, threatened or hurt by bullies.

The word bullying may encompass many things including being called names, being beaten up, having money and/or possessions stolen or being made to feel humiliated. Cyberbullying (bullying via the internet and/or mobile phones) adds a new and disturbing dimension to the already serious issue of bullying. Thanks to Cyberbullying, children and young people can now be persecuted in their own homes as well as at school or in the street. Although each individual’s experience of bullying is different, it is important to clarify what bullying is, and how it differs from other forms of abuse or anti-social behaviour. At BulliesOut, we define bullying as the wilful, conscious desire to hurt, control, threaten or frighten someone. It is when someone or several people, repeatedly over a period of time, do or say unpleasant things to another person or group of people, or keep teasing them in an unwanted way. Isolated incidences of upsetting or hurtful behaviour should not be identified as bullying.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell where teasing ends and bullying begins. Unfortunately, most children experience teasing, but it isn’t always as harmless as it seems and can cause pain. Teasing becomes bullying when it is repetitive or when there is a conscious intent to hurt another child.

Bullying has no genre and IS NOT part of growing up. One incident of bullying behaviour is serious enough but when it is persistent over a period of time it becomes a devastating problem. The detrimental impact bullying can have on the physical, emotional, academic, social and personal wellbeing of children and young people cannot be underestimated. At best, bullying causes great distress which can continue right through adulthood. At worst, bullying can lead to self-harm and suicide.