Bullying: Our position

What is bullying?

Bullying is when someone or a group of people, who have more power at the time, deliberately upset or hurt another person through negative actions repeatedly and over time.

Bullying is not a situation of mutual conflict, social rejection, single episodes of nastiness or random acts of aggression.

Bullying includes:

Direct physical bullying such as hitting, tripping, and pushing – or damaging the other person’s property.
Direct verbal bullying including name-calling, insults, sexist, homophobic or racist remarks or verbal abuse.
Indirect or covert bullying which is surreptitious and designed to harm someone’s social reputation and/or cause humiliation. It includes:
Lying and spreading rumours;
Playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate;
Mimicking and teasing;
Encouraging others to socially exclude someone;
Damaging someone’s social reputation and social acceptance; and
Cyber bullying, which involves the use of email, text messages or internet chat rooms to humiliate and distress someone.

International context

Economic disadvantage, domestic violence, social inequality and exclusion can fuel violence within schools. Indigenous status, ethnicity, race, sexuality, religion and physical appearance are also triggers for discrimination among school students.

Most victims refrain from reporting a bullying incident for fear of retribution from their aggressor. Victims lose self-esteem, suffer anxiety and stress, and miss school more often. They can experience trouble concentrating and are more likely to bully other classmates to regain their status.

Signs that a child is being bullied at school include a refusal to attend school, poor school performance, nightmares, unexplained bruises and cuts and bullying other children or siblings.

Studies show that children who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed than their peers and bullied girls are eight times more likely to be suicidal than girls who are not bullied. Boys are more likely than girls to be victims and perpetrators of bullying. They are more inclined to use physical intimidation and violence while girls are more likely to use verbal and social bullying tactics.

Bullying is a common behaviour in schools worldwide. Between one-fifth of children in China and two-thirds of children in Zambia reported being verbally or physically bullied in the previous 30 days.

In OECD countries, the situation is similar – a quarter of seven million students questioned in Spain and one third of those surveyed in Australia reported being bullied by classmates. Bullying also impacts children in African schools, with between 63% and 82% of students in a Nairobi public school reporting various types of bullying. Studies in Asia suggest that millions of children are victims of bullies.

Bullying is a serious problem in Bangladesh with more than 30% of students admitting to bullying someone at least once over the past year. And a survey in Laos revealed that 98% of girls and 100% of boys had observed bullying in schools – predominantly targeting girls or children from ethnic minorities.

Australian context

Recent research at Edith Cowan University, which looked at the occurrence and nature of covert bullying in Australian schools, found that frequent covert and/or overt bullying affected approximately one in four Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (or 27%) over a school term. Frequent bullying is highest among Year 5 (32%) and Year 8 (29%). Hurtful teasing was the most prevalent of all bullying behaviours, followed by the spreading of hurtful lies.

According to the Edith Cowan University research, the majority of students who had been directly bullied (61%) also experienced covert bullying. Covert bullying appears to be one of the most under-reported types of abuse because of the shame associated with bullying and because of inappropriate responses from students’ parents and teachers.

Almost one in ten students (9%) reported that they bullied others every few weeks or more often – because they didn’t like the person they were bullying, enjoyed bullying others, and liked to feel tough, strong, in control and popular.

A Wesley Mission study in Australia in 2009 revealed that the negative effects of being bullied at school can have a lasting impact on adults and that seven out of 10 adults surveyed have been negatively affected by school bullying.

Cyber bullying – the use of the internet, mobile phones, and other digital technologies to threaten or abuse – means bullying can take place without time or geographic constraints. About 7 – 10% of students reported being bullied by means of technology over a school term. Higher rates of cyber bullying were found among secondary students and students from non-Government schools.

Current Australian Government legislation and cyber safety measures

Bullying may involve aspects of discrimination and harassment and may be a breach of Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation including the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004. Bullying may also breach state or territory legislation.

The Federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, released Australian research in January 2010 on the Method of Shared Concern, which seeks to resolve cases of bullying without the use of punishment. This approach seeks to empower students – who have contributed to bullying or become aware of bullying – to act. The Method of Shared Concern approach is a key component in anti-bullying programs in many countries including England, Spain and Finland.

The National Safe Schools Framework (NSSF), developed by the Australian Government in 2002, is a set of nationally-agreed principles for safe and supportive school environments. The Framework, currently under review, provides a guide for schools to help them address the serious issues of bullying, harassment and violence in their classrooms and playgrounds.

The Australian Government is currently funding a $3 million anti-bullying pilot program in 160 schools around the country to establish what anti-bullying methods are currently being used in schools and what works.

In May 2008, the Federal Government committed $125.8 million over four years to a comprehensive cyber-safety plan to combat online risks and help parents and educators protect children from inappropriate material. Measures include increased funding for cyber-safety education and awareness-raising activities, content filtering and law enforcement.

Save the Children Australia’s position on bullying

Everyone child has the right not to be bullied or harassed and everyone should feel safe from bullying. Open communication between family members and positive discipline at home help build children’s self-esteem and minimise the risks of bullying.
Bullying is a community-wide problem and families, governments, schools and all other organisations have a duty of care to provide safe and supportive environments.
Bullying is an important issue for school communities to address – including school boards, school principals, teachers, students, parents and guardians.
We urge all organisations to develop and implement anti-bullying strategies that promote positive behaviour, discourage anti-social behaviour and encourage respect, compassion and cooperation.

Recommendations

Ensure intervention and prevention programs offer support to young people who bully others, their families and the communities in which they live.
Support the participation of children in the design and implementation of preventative and comprehensive anti-bullying policies.
Support peer mediation programs – which teach students non-violent conflict resolution strategies and programs based on the total school community – to control bullying and victimisation.
Design, implement and monitor action plans to prevent school bullying and violence. Programs should be tailored to individual schools and should focus on reducing the risk of bullying, responding to complaints of bullying and treating and rehabilitating people involved in bullying and violent incidents.
Establish a child-friendly, independent reporting and referral service to handle bullying complaints and to provide a confidential helpline.
Research and gather more comprehensive and reliable data about the causes, consequences, costs and prevention of school bullying and violence.
Develop a media campaign to promote non-violent values, attitudes and behaviour.
Review existing legislation and promote legislation and policy to deal effectively with bullying and violence.
Promote positive parenting courses that teach non-violent, non-punitive approaches to discipline and encourage parents to participate in such courses.
Integrate programs to prevent school bullying and violence into teacher education.
Establish an anti-bullying advisory body for education stakeholders that guides and reviews the implementation of school policies to tackle bullying – against a set of agreed criteria.

What is Save the Children doing?

Save the Children:

Discourages bullying behaviour and promotes tolerance and acceptance among all staff and in all its programs in Australia and overseas.
Is preparing to roll out positive discipline courses for parents in several parts of Australia to encourage open communication between parents and their children and minimise the risk of bullying.
Is developing an animated human rights education program that teaches Australian students about their rights and responsibilities, including information about how to deal with bullying.
Deals with a range of child protection issues, including bullying, violence and protective behaviors in our Future Parents program. The program uses early intervention strategies for young parents to positively impact their lives and those of their children and communities.
In Bangladesh, our Life Skills program encourages adolescents to communicate more effectively with one another and discourages bullying.

Download PDF of our position on Bullying.