What you need to know
Bullying can happen in a number of different ways and all of these ways can have a huge impact on somebody's life.
Different types of bullying include:
- Verbal e.g. name calling/ spreading rumours
- Physical e.g. assault
- Excluding people
- Manipulating others against someone
- Cyber bullying
Bullying is really difficult to deal with so it is important you encourage your child to tell somebody if you feel they are being bullied and talk to them to help them feel secure.
- Encourage your child to talk to you and/or a teacher
- Keep a record of incidences of bullying for them e.g who was present/ where was it
- Be sure to take screen shots and save messages if you feel you're child is being cyber bullied
- Don't fight back/retaliate to the bullying or get into arguments with the parents/carers of the bullies, this could lead to trouble
- If your child has a mobile phone or access to social media, help your child block the bullies
- Teach your child how to stay safe online; keeping privacy settings high, not sharing details with people they don't know/trust
- Try and keep a wide variety of friends
- Talk to your child's teachers/school for support
- If the behaviour is significant consider informing the police, some bullying/abusive behaviour is a criminal offense