The Issue of Bullying  

Bullying uses superior strength or influence to intimidate or abuse (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. The behaviour can be habitual and involve an imbalance of social or physical power.

Types of bullying: 

1.Physical bullying includes any physical contact that would hurt or injure a person like hitting, kicking, punching, etc. Taking something that belongs to someone else and destroying it would also be considered a type of physical bullying.

2.Verbal bullying is name-calling, making offensive remarks, or joking about a person's religion, gender,sexuality, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or the way they look. Verbal aggression is when a bully teases someone. It can also include a bully making verbal threats of violence or aggression against someone's personal property.

3.Indirect bullying includes spreading rumors or stories about someone, telling others about something that was told to you in private, and excluding others from groups. indirect bullying does not physically hurt the person, but it can be very emotional for the victim. An example would be if you started a rumor that a boy in your class likes playing with dolls, and if the reason that you made up the story was because you thought it was funny. This would be indirect bullying. 

4. Social alienation is when a bully excludes someone from a group on purpose. It also includes a bully spreading rumors  public humiliation, gossiping , social rejection, threat of exclusion from a peer group, isolation and ethnic slur and also making fun of someone by pointing out their differences. This form of bullying can lead to poor body image, low self esteem and depression.

5. Intimidation is when a bully threatens someone else and frightens that person enough to make him or her do what the bully wants.

6. Cyber bullying is done by sending messages, pictures, or information using electronic media, computers (email & instant messages), or cell phones (text messaging & voice-mail . For instance, if you sent a picture of a snake in an email to a person because you know that they are afraid of snakes, that would be an example of cyber bullying  According to a survey done in 2003 only 4% of bullying is listed as "other types" and this would include cyber bullying  Even though this number seems small, the growth of this type of bullying is going up fast because of the spread of technology around the world.

Bullying facts- 

• Almost half of all children and young people (46%) say they've been bullied at some point in their life(2009). A victim of bullying is twice as likely to take his or her life compared to someone who is not a victim.
• 30,439 children called ChildLine in 2010/11 with 11% of calls about bullying.
• Bullying was the main reason boys called ChildLine. ( we are using a male protagonist)
• A survey on pupils in England estimates that 16,493 young people aged 11-15 are frequently absent from school because of bullying. 

Effects of bullying-

The effects of bullying can be severe to many of its victims.
Research shows that half of all children  are bullied during some time in their school life;more than 10% are bullied regularly. And here's a video to support this :

Effects are :

• felling afraid 
• depression/sadness
•  unable to sleep/having nightmares
•  performing badly at school/work
•  not wanting to go to school/work,
• loss of appetite
• stomach aches
• headaches
• acute asthma
•  eczema
• loss of self-confidence
• social anxiety disorder- SAD /phobia
• a temptation into bullying out of revenge
•   suicide caused by bullying.

 And here's a video to support this :

Children feel lost, isolated and depressed. They don't want to socialise with others. Their self esteem is dragged down and effects can haunt them until adulthood.  Some children even take it a step further to be completely free and commit suicide as they see it as the only way out. 

Amanda Todd is 10th grade student that went through years of bullying, depression and anxiety and then finally hung herself on October 10th 2012.  

Here's a link if you would like to read up further about this tragedy:

                        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Todd