What can I do now to stop textbullying?
What if I’m still getting text bullied?
Who can I talk to about text bullying?
What else is ‘bullying’?
Bullying can be lots of different things, like:
- being called bad names
- getting your money or stuff taken away
- being hit or pushed
- being told someone hates you when they don’t
- people spreading lies about you
- people teasing your because of your home life (like if you’re mum’s not well or you’re in foster care)
- teasing about your race or religion
- being told someone’s going to beat you up
Nobody deserves to be bullied! Bullies want to scare you and make you feel lonely and hurt – but you don’t have to let them. There are places where you can get help with all kinds of bullying:
ChildLine’s website has lots of stories from young people at primary and secondary school who’ve been bullied and managed to stop it. There are games, information and the top 10 tips for how to beat bullying. Go to www.childline.org.uk
Have a read through ‘You can beat bullying’ at Kidscape’s website. It explains why young people bully, how to get more self-confidence, how to deal with feeling really angry, and loads of other useful stuff. Go to www.kidscape.org.uk
Beat Bullying’s website has got an anti-bullying toolkit for young people. It has things like a form to help make it easier to tell someone at school, and a plan for staying safe wherever you are. Go to www.bbclic.com
Ten things that aren’t true about bullying
- I’m getting bullied so there must be something wrong with me.
- Only losers, geeks, hippies and freaks get bullied.
- It’s not really bullying unless someone is nasty to your face.
- If someone threatens me by text, the best thing is to threaten them right back.
- If I tell someone – especially a teacher – the bullying will get even worse.
- If I just ignore the bullying, it’ll stop after a bit.
- I won’t really get into trouble if I slag someone off in an email or a text. It’s not against the law or anything.
- My chat friends would never bully me – I can tell who’s cool and who’s not when I’m chatting.
- The police don’t care if someone’s texted that they’re going to get me.
- I’m not getting hassled so bullying’s not my problem, is it?
Oh and one more thing – bullies aren’t the strongest and coolest people. Usually they only bully because there’s something they don’t like about their life.
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