How Common is Bullying?

Many people think that bullying is a common part of childhood, and sadly, it is. Bullying affects close to half of students in high school and middle school. Estimates by the National Youth Violence Prevention in 2006 say that 30% of students either are bullied on a regular basis or are bullies themselves. About 11% of children are bullying victims while a slightly higher percentage, 13%, are doing the bullying. 6% of children say that they have been both the bullying victim and the bully at one time or another. This starling evidence shows that bullying is all too common in schools and the serious nature of bullying can damage the lives of these children.

Any child can be the victim of bullying, but some types of students are more likely than others to be targeted. Any child that is different whether it is race, ethnicity, religion, physical limitations or mental limitations is at a higher risk of being bullied. Bullying is more common among boys than girls and is more likely to be physical. It is common for bullying among girls to be emotional and based on what children say about each other. Bullying can take place anywhere that children interact, including on the computer and over the phone.

Bullying is common even from children who are confident and popular. A common misconception about bullying is that bullies are usually children with low self-esteem and are trying to compensate for their own problems. This is not the case and frequently bullies are confident, popular students who pick on others for the fun of it. Bullies often act out as a way to dominate others and to impress their friends. Bullies feel no remorse for what they do and are often in trouble in other areas of school. Bullies who are shown proper ways to interact with other are more likely to have serious problems later in life. It is common for children who are bullies in school to develop problems with the law later as adults and to get involved with drug and alcohol abuse.

Bullying victims can usually overcome the effects of bullying, especially if the bully is stopped before they have a chance to do any permanent damage. Not all cases of bullying have long term effects, but if not stopped in time they can. Children who are bullied relentlessly for a long time are more likely to be depressed and suicidal, even later in life. Bullying victims are also likely to drop out of school or do poorly in school as a result of all the stress placed on them by the bully. Bullying victims also tend to have low self-esteem that may never improve.

Bullying is a common and serious problem in schools today. Parents and teacher should closely monitor children for signs of bullying and stop any incidents before both the bully and victim suffer long-term consequences. The serious nature of bullying is often overlooked by good natured parents and teachers who think it is something that will be outgrown, and while that is sometimes the case, bullying should not be taken lightly.

Cyber Bullying VS Traditional Bullying

Bullying has long been a problem in school but was usually confined to the school yard or the hallway. Technology makes bullying even easier than it was before with email, chat rooms, and an unlimited audience online. There was a time when all bullying happened face to face but now with the internet, children can bully each other through popular communication methods even anonymously. Traditional bullies always had to let their victims see them and could only gain the support of friends who were around. Cyber bullies can humiliate, threaten, and belittle their victims without their identity being known, or they can have an audience of thousands. Cyber bullies are becoming more and more common as children use these communication methods more and more in their daily lives.

Cyber bullies can say things that they can not in front of other people in chat rooms, IM's and on websites. This allows children to be much meaner than they traditionally could. Things that they could not say in front of adults and even other children are now easily said online. Cyber bullying is potentially an even bigger threat than traditional bullying because the potential for damaging statements is even greater. Traditional bullies could only reach an audience of the other children around, with the internet hundreds of children can gang up on a single child.

Cyber bullying is also easier to do than traditional bullying. All it takes is a few key strokes and a cyber bully can humiliate their target. Children are less inhibited when online and it is not as hard to bully when it is over a computer. Traditional bullies had to have the courage to physically bully another child or at least use comments to their face. Cyber bullies have to use much less effort and can be more impulsive.

Traditional bullies could only act out on their victims when they saw them. This confined bullying to school and places that children interacted face to face. Cyber bullies can bully others any time as cell phones and computers are both at home and at school. Traditional bullies could not hurt others at home, but with cyber bullies, home is usually where bullying occurs via the computer. This leaves no safe place for the targets of bullying to go as computers are essential nowadays for completing schoolwork and communicating with friends.

Even though emails and messages are easy to stop, cyber bullies is not as easy to stop as traditional bullies are. Derogatory and hurtful comments posted online and shared between people are impossible to stop and can potentially reach an unlimited number of people. Once a comment is posted online it can reach an unlimited number of people and the ramifications can be huge. Stopping a traditional bully was relatively easy with the right preventative measures, but the anonymous nature of the internet makes it impossible.

There are many differences between cyber bullies and traditional bullies but both types are serious issues. Bullying negatively affects both the bully and the victim and if not stopped can cause serious long term damage.