Bullying can be defined in many different ways, but the UK has no legal definition. So to prevent and tackle bullying in and out of school and the workplace, we need to understand the terms related to bullying and online safety. Making sure we identify the risks and impact it has on our young people, children and adults.
Bullying is the repetitive and persistent, intentional hurting of someone which is divided into four basic categories.
Bullying can come from one person or a group of people, which is called ‘Mobbing’ or ‘Peer Abuse’. All forms of bullying are not acceptable and the main platform for it in recent years is coming from Social Media.
Many people can be bullied and can be targeted for a number of reasons. Bullying mainly starts due to one of these reasons.
One-off incidents and mutual conflict do not constitute as bullying. Having a disagreement or fight with another person which both have participated in and there is no imbalance of power is not bullying. Bullying is constant and fits a pattern of behaviour, a one-off incident can be categorised as bullying if it is so significant that is causes long-term effects such as mental health issues to the other person.
If you are a young person or child of school age, your school should have a Policy in place to deal with bullying. If you are a student, you should speak to your Tutor or Head of Year and discuss the issues you have been experiencing. It is good to have a log of times when incidents have happened, when, where and who was involved.
As a parent identifying your child is being bullied, you should contact the school and speak to the relevant person in charge of dealing with behaviour. Make an appointment to discuss in person the issues and a plan of what you want to happen.
If your school has R.A.I.N, you can log the incident without making that call first.