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Bullying
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Many people say that bullying is the worst thing that can ever happen to anyone. Bullying can happen to anyone, anywhere.
It is usually repeated behaviour, that is intended to hurt or harm someone emotionally or physically. It can be aimed at certain individuals because of their, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or anything else that makes them stand out from the crowd.
Indirect bullying is found to be the worst for some as many people don't realise that it is actually bullying.
Bullying can also be seen in other forms like: abuse, (including neglect and sexual abuse) and emotional bullying.
A quote from Liam Payne from One Direction:
“I was a victim of bullying back in school. My advice is to always tell someone straight away and ask for help. Keeping it to yourself will only be more damaging in the long run.”
What you can do if your teacher is bullying you?
If a teacher or another adult working in an educational environment, is bullying you, you have a right to not let them make you feel like this. You should talk to another teacher or someone you trust and give them full details of what is happening.
What can you do about Bullying?
1. Tell someone
2. Don't keep it inside
3. Ignore it or walk away from it and act like it is not affecting you
4. Take notes on what happens like a diary
5. Ask them to stop it (They may not realise that it is hurting you.)
6. Keep copies of Emails or Texts.
7. Stay safe on the internet
8. Find out how your school deals with bullying and tell them about it
9. BUT REMEMBER, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT!
Bullying has many forms:
Physical:
This consists of:
•Hitting
•Kicking
•Pushing or Pulling someone around
•Destroying personal items or messing with them
•Items being stolen e.g. money etc.
Verbal:
This consists of:
•Name calling
•Threatening
•Teasing
•Humiliation
•Intimidation
Indirect:
This consists of:
•Someone being ignored or left out of activities
•Rumours being spread
•Manipulation
•Telling lies about someone
•Gossiping about someone
Cyberbullying
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Cyberbullying is when someone uses the internet or a mobile to purposely upset someone else. This is a form of bullying and you shouldn’t have to put up with it.
What is the difference?
This type of bullying can affect someone not just at school, but at home as too. This is because it always takes place in the online environment, because it is online it can be used at any time.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find out who the cyberbully is because they could block their number or use another name. This type of bullying can have a large audience, but most won't know that it is actually bullying.
A good thing about this kind of bullying is that it can be used as evidence. Normal bullying can be the bullies’ word against yours, but with cyberbullying you can save the messages or web pages and print them out. This can be used as evidence to find out who the bully is and stop them bullying other people too.
What should you do?
1. Save all the messages or web pages. If you have upsetting emails or nasty things put on your profile save them to your phone or computer so you can use it as evidence.
2. Learn how to block the bully. (We suggest you keep the contacts and find a way to block them as by keeping the contacts you will know who it is if they do it again)
Remember
3. Don't reply to things that are said; it could make the situation worse. If you ignore them they will get bored and give up. If they get a reaction from you they have won. Don't give them what they want, we know this is hard but most people find it works.
4. If you are being bothered via your mobile phone, you should contact your phone provider. Each company has a special area for problems like this.
Sexting
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Sexting is when someone takes an indecent image of themselves, and sends it to friends or boy/girlfriend via a form of technology.
Once these images have been sent to someone, your control over who sees them is lost and they can end up been seen by anyone. They could be seen by any of your friends, family, an employer, or a sex offender.
If it is a photo you don't want your gran to see we suggest you don't send it to anyone, as it could result in everyone seeing it.
If you receive an image like this from someone, we suggest you don't pass it around, and that you tell an adult.
If you know that an image of you or a friend has been placed online (that you don't want there) you should contact the service provider, e.g. Facebook, You tube or twitter so it can be removed.
You can do this by following their ways of reporting things.
If you send pictures like this of a person under 18 to someone else you could be breaking the law.
If you have an indecent image of another young person, you would technically be "in possession of an indecent image of a child," which is an illegal under the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
You should always tell an adult you trust. This could be your mum, dad, school teacher or anyone else you trust.
If someone you don't know has photos of you like this, or your photos are being used against you, or if someone is asking you for photos of you that are indecent you should fill out a report using the CEOP Report Button. ceop.police.uk this is the main CEOP site where you can make a report.
These videos were created by young people with the help of FixersUK and can be found on the fixers.org.uk website. If you are interested in fixing an issue check out their website or tweet them @FixersUK to find out more.
Your Rights
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All Young People and Children have rights. These rights are part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, also known as the UNCRC.
What are they?
You have rights to:
•A childhood
•An education
•To be treated equally and fairly
•To be healthy
•and to be listened to
These rights are here to give all young people protection and a voice and are there for EVERY child and young person. Bullying can breach some of these rights and it can take them away from you.
Just so you know these following tend to be affected:
1. You have a right to be safe – you have a responsibility to make sure that you don't do something that could make someone unsafe.
2. You have the right to think what you want, so long as it does not stop anyone from doing the same.
3. You have the right to relax and take part in holidays and other leisure activities – You are responsible to make sure you don't stop anyone else from doing this.
4. Adults are responsible for making sure that these rights are available to you at home, school and in your surrounding community.
If you need more information on the UNCRC then you can visit: www.unicef.org.uk or you can visit www.sccyp.org.uk. A summary of these rights can be found here: www.crae.org.uk.
The Law
Just because bullying is not a criminal offence in the UK, laws can be used for things like harassment or threatening behaviour, cyberbullying can include – threatening as well. Some of the acts are mentioned below:
•Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which has both criminal and civil provision
•Malicious Communications Act 1988
•Section 43 of the Telecommunications Act 1984
•Communications Act 2003
•Public Order Act 1986
If you're being bullied because of where you come from, your skin colour or your religion this is racism and depending on what they say could depend on it being a criminal offence under other laws.
You can also find out more about your rights on the Children's Commissioner website: www.rights4me.org.