Effects of Bullying: Why Is Bullying Bad for Kids?

Where does bullying take place?

Bullying can take place anywhere. Bullying is not restricted to remote or secluded places. Even places like schools, neighborhoods, transportation, on the road or online witness cases of bullying.

How many kids are bullied?

For people who say that bullying is a phase of life and it will pass over time have little idea of what they are talking about. When it comes to bullying, the impact can be long-lasting.

For some, bullying stretches up to the point where suicide looks like the only possible resort to them. Parents, guardians, and teachers should become the backbone of children who are being bullied and should take desired actions and measures to make sure the bullying is discontinued.

Here are some shocking statistics that have come around over the years in relation to bullying. (https://www.stompoutbullying.org/get-help/about-bullying-and-cyberbullying/issue-bullying/)

• 1 out of every 4 teens is bullied
• 1 out of every 5 kids admit to either being a bully or having done an act of a bully
• A kid is bullied every 7 minutes
• 9 out of 10 LGBTQI students have experienced bullying at school
• Almost 43% of students claim to have been digitally bullied
• More than 5.4 million students are known to skip school at some point due to bullying
• Cyberbullying has become the new age bullying term
• School bathroom harassment is so grave that over 43% of students fear it
• A quarrel with a bully is 80% likely to end up in a physical fight
• More than 85% of the times, no one intervenes is a bullying situation even after watching or seeing it
• Over 35% of kids have received an online threat
• 21% of kids have received cruel messages
• More than 58% of kids do not tell their parents about online bullying

Why is bullying bad?

Bullying can have major short term and long term effects on a person's mental, physical, and emotional health. Social problems, physical injuries, and emotional problems are only the umbrella terms for what can happen due to bullying. Self-esteem is one of the factors that can be rendered damage for a lifetime.

Here are some of the ways in which bullying affect people:

1. Ends Lives –

Many teens and tweens come to the conclusion that there is no other way to end the misery of bullying than to end their life. A staggering number of kids resort to suicide when they continually experience bullying. So many precious lives are lost each year due to it.

1. Affects academic performance –

Kids who are bullied are known to perform worse than their counterparts who are not bullied. The most probable cause is because either they are mentally frustrated due to the bullying or because they miss school to avoid bullying.

1. Lowers Self-Esteem –

Bullying can give a severe blow to the self-esteem of the person who is bullied. Lower self-esteem can also lead to depression or the person committing suicide.

1. Loss of appetite and sleep –

Another major effect of bullying is loss of appetite and sleep. When a person is bullied, they start to live in a constant fear which makes them lose their hunger and render night's sleeplessness.

1. Emotional Upheavals –

A teen or tween who is bullied will face ranging fits of emotions. At times they will become extremely quiet fearing even little movements and at others, they will blow out their anger on whoever comes in front of them.

1. Have Low-Quality Friendships –

Bullied people have a hard time trusting other people. Thus they are more likely to have low-quality friendships because of their non-trusting nature.

How to report bullying?

Bullying has prevailed for decades now. Even with such strict laws imposed by the government and educational institutes with regard to bullying, a positive change does not seem to have happened.

The number of cases reported regarding bullying has only seen a rise in the past years. Not just that, with the increasing availability of internet and access to social media sites, cyberbullying has added a new page to the book of bullying.

Opening up about bullying can be difficult. Bullying is mostly experienced by those who do not have a lot of close friends or face some issues in the family. To add on to these, bullying can harm the self-esteem of a person beyond repair.

If you are unsure of who to report to, start with the closest:

1. Tell your peers –

When we are in our teen years, the people we are closest to and trust the most are our peers. Our friends become of the utmost importance to us. Be it haring secrets or going out with, we always turn towards our friends at this stage of life.

Thus, when it comes to sharing our problems, peers should be there too. Start by telling your peers about the bullying you are experiencing. We guarantee you that things do get better when shared.

1. Tell your parents –

No matter how old you get, you will always be little for your parents. They are always so concerned for your safety that they will go to great measures to keep you safe.

When and if you face bullying issues, show trust and faith in your parents and talk to them. Make them understand how you are feeling and they will definitely find a solution.

1. Tell school authority –

If you are facing bullying in school then your school authorities should be aware of it. There are different people we embed our trust into in school. It could be a subject teacher, a counselor, or anybody of the staff.

They will understand what you are going through and find a solution.

1. Tell the police –

If you ever hear anyone telling you that bullying is not such a big crime, walk away because they are not helping. Bullying is a serious crime with long-lasting effects.

Gather up records of you being bullied and take the help of police or cyber crime team if needed.

What can parents do to protect their kids?

Parents are the ones who have supported us even before your peers came around to do it. Parents are the ones who love us unconditionally and will go to any extent to help us out in our moments of trouble.

You as a parent can take the following steps to help you, child:

1. Engage in conversation with your kids –

More than anything else, kind words from a person you love and trust can make all the difference. You, as parents have the power to make that difference.

The trick here is not to get all worked up. Stay calm. Even if the things upset you, do not lose your calm. Let them complete everything there is to tell and then ask them how they feel and what they wish they could do.

Do not say things like "take a stand" because they probably already would have if they could.

1. Show Support –

Once you have heard all they have to say, show support. Tell them you will help them and they have nothing to worry about. Tell them why bullying is bad and how bullying affects people, and you are with them.

1. Use FamiSafe –

Once you have heard all they have to say, decide what you can do from your end. Since we live in a digitally-driven era, it does not take much to for any kind of bullying to reflect or spread through online means.

A Reliable and Handy Parental Control App

• Location Tracking & Geo-fencing
• App Blocker & Web Filtering
• Web Filtering
• Screen Time Control
• Smart Parental Control Setting

To help your child, download the FamiSafe app. FamiSafe is the most reliable parental control app that helps in cyberbullying prevention, location tracking, app blocking, controlling screen time, blocking apps, and much more.

Its core features that as a parent you will love are:

• Explicit content detection: FamiSafe helps you in ruling out keywords that you think are a part of explicit content. Thus, when the word or a similar one is detected by FamiSafe on sites or apps such as Whatsapp, Messenger Lite, Facebook, Messenger, YouTube, KiK, Instagram, and SMS from Android and YouTube on iOS, you will receive an alert.

• Suspicious Photos: If your child is being cyberbullied, then there is a high chance of them receiving unwanted pictures and videos online. With FamiSafe, you can be sure that you get updated first if any suspicious photos are detected.

Conclusion

Though we agree that bullying is common, we are not exactly sure why. Bullying, even for a word does not sound nice. If your child is also experiencing acts of a bully then it is better to look out for a solution rather than waiting for something worse to happen.

With FamiSafe, you can be certain that your child will be safe from cyberbullying as it helps in blocking explicit content, photos, links, and videos.