For Anti-Bullying Week this year, BeatBullying wants everyone to band together to make bullying unacceptable. We want young people and professionals to understand that tackling bullying is everyone’s responsibility. We can all make a difference as an individual, but by taking a stand collectively, we can send an even more powerful message and beat bullying together.
In school:
- Stay where you can be seen/safe
- Stay with a group
- Don’t retaliate
- Don’t hang around the corridors/ staircases
- Don’t linger in the toilets
- Don’t hang about between lessons
- Stick with your mates
- Stay near a teacher
- Stand up and speak out
- Train all teachers
- Tell someone what is happening, i.e. teacher, parents, school council, peer listeners, friend
- Try and ignore them
- Try and befriend them
- Don’t feel it is your fault, nobody deserves to be bullied
Outside school:
- Congregate in public places
- Appear confident even if you don’t feel it
- Keep phones on silent /vibrate
- Keep valuables out of sight
- Only carry enough money for what you need that day
- Try not to attract unwanted attention
- Don’t go to areas you don’t know
- Always let your parents/guardians know where you are going and when you will be back
- If you feel there is going to be trouble on a bus or train, get off as soon as it is safe to do so
- If a fight breaks out,don’t get involved, get away from it ASAP
Online:
- Use the report button and block people sending you nasty messages on social networking sites.
- Register and log-on to beatbullying.org and talk to a mentor.
- Don’t add people you don’t know to your social networking sites.
- Change your privacy settings to ‘friends only’.
- Have a clear-out of your friends on social networking sites. Have you spoken to them in the last month?.
- Keep a record by print-screening the bullying. Save and print out any bullying messages, posts, pictures or videos you receive or see.
- Don’t post personal information online - like your address, your email address or mobile number.
- Keep personal information as general as possible.
- Never respond or retaliate,as this can just make things worse.
- Make a note of the dates and times of bullying messages, along with any details you have about the sender’s ID and the URL. Keep a diary of everything that’s happening.
- Never let anyone have access to your passwords.
- Think very carefully before posting photos of yourself online. Once your picture is online, anyone can download it and share it or even change it.
- Don’t pass on cyberbullying videos or messages about other people.
- If you’re being bullied repeatedly, think about changing your user ID, nickname or profile to stop the bullies finding you.
- Google yourself every now and again. It will show you what is online about you and what others can see and you can make changes if you don’t like what you see.
For more information about Anti-Bullying Week or to find out more about how to beat bullying please visit http://www.beatbullying.org/