What is bullying?
Bullying is a mixture of behaviours and impacts; what someone does and the impact that it has on you, which affects your ability to feel safe and in control of your life.
What is bullying behaviour?
Bullying behaviour happens face to face and online and can include:
- Being called names, being teased or made fun of
- Being hit, pushed or kicked
- Having your belongings taken or damaged
- Being ignored, left out, or having rumours spread about you in
- Being humiliated
- Receiving abusive messages or having nasty comments made about you online
- Being targeted because of who you are or how people see you
This can hurt you physically, mentally or emotionally. Even if bullying take place once, the threat or worry that it will happen again can feel very real.
Bullying can also happen because of people’s prejudices towards other people; because they’re different in some way or are perceived to be different. But being different isn’t the problem – the problem lies in other people’s attitudes and behaviour towards what makes someone different.