Help with Bullying

There are different types of bullying that young people can experience such as:

• homophobic bullying based on your sexual orientation
• racist bullying because of your skin colour or ethnicity
• Religious bullying because of your beliefs or faith.
• sizeist bullying referring to your body size
• sexist bullying focusing on you being of the opposite sex
• cyberbullying targeting you online, often without revealing who they are

To help try and stop the bullying you might:

• Try to avoid the bully/bullies when you are alone
• Try to not react to the bully/bullies
• If you can, tell them to stop
• Tell someone you trust
• Keep a diary or record of the bullying
• Delete of block bullies if they are online

Bullying can be a one-off or it can go on for a long time and bullying can happen to anyone.  Ignoring bullying won’t make it go away. You need to tell someone about what is happening.

Talk to someone you trust such as your parents, carers or your teacher. If you are being bullied at School your teacher may have no idea that it is happening, and the school will have an anti-bullying policy to support you.

If you are struggling to speak to someone face to face you might want to try online support such as www.kooth.com and The Mix which has a free web chat.

There are also services which can support you such as Childline and The Mix.  If your under 19, you can call Childline with any problem big or small on 0800 11 11. The Mix offers support to anyone under 25 about anything that’s troubling them.  There is a free 1-2-1 website service available or you can call 0800 808 4994, between 3pm-12am, seven days per week.