Children who are bullied can suffer immense emotional and physical trauma, sometimes with lasting effects.
Children can be bullied for a number of reasons including appearance, race, religion, social background, disability or sexuality.
People bully for a variety of reasons. They may have been bullied themselves, have low self esteem or confidence.
The NSPCC believes that the most effective anti-bullying strategies in school are those that involve all members of the school community.
Strategies should be preventive as well as reactive and be supportive of the victim. However, it is also important to work with the bully because intervention works better than punishment.
It is important for young people to participate in anti-bullying strategies. In addition those working with children should communicate to children and young people the impact bullying can have and why they should actively intervene to prevent it.
The NSPCC chairs the Anti-Bullying Alliance. The Alliance brings together 50 organisations from the voluntary, educational, professional and private sectors to tackle the problem of bullying and create safer environments for children and young people.
Statisitics:
31% of children experienced bullying during childhood, a further 7% were discriminated against and 14% were made to feel different/an outsider. 43% experienced at least one of these things during childhood.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.26)
" A quarter of young adults bullied by their peers during childhood report that they suffered long term harmful effects as a result.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.30)
54% of both primary and secondary school children thought that bullying was 'a big problem' or 'quite a big problem' in their school. (Oliver and Kandappa, 2003, Tackling Bullying: Listening to the views of children and young people - Summary Report, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education)
Around a third of boys (35%) and a quarter of girls (26%) admit they have bullied other children 'a little' and/or 'a lot'.
(Katz et al., 2001, Bullying in Britain: Testimonies from Teenagers, Young Voice, p.9)
30% of children did not tell anyone that they had been bullied. (Smith and Shu, 2000, 'What Good Schools can Do About Bullying: Findings from a survey in English Schools after a decade of research and action', Childhood, 7:2, pp.193-212, p.204)
Research with 11 to 19 year olds found that 1 in 5 young people (20%) had experienced bullying or threats via e-mail, internet chatroom or text message. Bullying using text messaging was the most common of these three forms of bullying, experienced by 14% of young people. Almost three quarters (73%) of young people who had been bullied by email, internet chatroom or text message said they knew the person who bullied or threatened them, while a quarter (26%) said it was done by a stranger.
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