FACTS

What is bullying?

According to the DfES, bullying is deliberately hurtful behaviour repeated often over a period of time.
Bullying is where someone picks on you or intimidates you. Most bullies have actually been victims of bullying themselves.
There are many things that can be classed as bullying, including:

• Being teased and called names.
• Being punched, hit and kicked.
• Having things stolen from you
• Someone damaging your possessions
• Someone spreading untrue rumours
• Being forced to do things you dont want to do.
• Being sent abusive text messages, e-mails, or silent phone calls.
• Being ignored by others or left out of activities.

Who gets bullied?

Nearly everyone is bullied at some time or another to some extent. This could be by relatives, neighbours, other adults and other children.
Roughly 1 in 2 children are bullied, so it’s not just you. No one deserves to be bullied, and most people who are bullied believe that it’s there fault.
It’s not just people who hold a grudge against you bully you. 20% of people who phone childline, were bullied by a former friend.
According to childline half of primary school children and more than 1 in 4 secondary children said that they had been bullied within the last two years.
A lot of bullies describe it as a habit that they are trying to break, but finding it difficult to stop. Most people who are bullied, are bullied by groups rather than one individual. Bullies like to gang up on people to make them feel more threatened and vulnerable, they also get a ‘kick’ out of other people watching. 
Bullying has powerful effects on young people, it wears you down and you often feel as though you can’t stop it. It can have everlasting effects on you and can even effect you in adulthood.
Bullying doesn’t just affect a child’s social life, it can affect them in school. Children cannot concentrate as much, and they even skip lessons to avoid the bullies. Children even go to the extreme of faking illness or refusing to go to school due to bullying.

Cyber Bullying

This is the new way to bully others. Cyber Bullying includes, malicious text messages, emails, silent phone calls, abuse through msn messenger, or abusive/hoax phone calls.
No matter how discreet a bully is through technology, they can always be traced by the police, and can be severely dealt with.
A website called Bullying Online have a keen interest in cyber bullying, and through their hard work, they have closed down many abusive websites and forums.

There are many things you can do to try and prevent cyber bullying, including:

• Don’t give out your personal details (e.g. mobile number, msn address) unless you know and trust the person that you are giving it to.

• If someone is phoning you, and the number is withheld or you dont recognise it, dont answer it.

• If you can divert unknown calls to your voicemail, this way if it is a bully you can then save it as evidence.

• Take down details of the time and date that messages were sent, and if possible the originating details, e.g. (service centre number on a text message).

Bullying among our youth is a significant problem--and it is steadily increasing. Many experts fear bullying has become so widespread and common, adults are blinded to its extensive harm. Here are the facts:

• One in seven students is either a bully or victim.

• 56% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school.

• 15% of all school absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied at school.

• 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school.