Something You Must Know About Bullying in School

Bullying in schools is something that has always existed, but perhaps not more so than it is today. Bullying has become such a widespread problem and, in some cases, it’s becoming so bad that the long-term effects of it can damage individuals for life.

With this in mind, it’s no wonder so many students, parents and teachers are looking for answers on how to address bullying situations, and better yet, minimising the risk of it happening completely. Today, we’re going to explore everything you need to know about bullying in schools, as well as detailing ways everyone can be proactive in stopping it in the first place.

What are the Bullying in Schools Facts

Before we jump into the solutions, it’s important to make sure we’re looking at the facts. Below, we’re going to talk about all the latest statistics and bullying in schools facts, giving us the knowledge we need to counteract it and start preventing bullying in schools.

• According to DoSomething.org, over 3.2 million students become victims of bullying every single year. This relates to over 160,000 students skipping schools to avoid it. This, of course, has long-term effects on the individual’s education and personal growth.
• 25% of teachers claim to see nothing wrong with bullying and will think of it as a normal part of life. On average, only around 4% of teachers in the US will get involved if they see an act of bullying taking place.
• Hand in hand with the bullying in schools facts above, only 30% of boys and 40% of girls will speak up to their teachers when they feel as though they’re being bullied by the age of 14, meaning around 65% of bullying cases go under the radar.
• All in all, around 54% of everybody under the age of 25 say they have been bullied at some points in their lives. Around 20% of these people surveyed say they were verbally bullied.
• Generally speaking, people who have been bullied in the past will develop tendencies to bully others in the future.
• Over 33% of everybody bullied will go on to develop mental health problems stemming directly from their experiences. Some of these conditions include anxiety and depression.
• Around 25% of students bullied in schools will develop suicidal thoughts due to the experiences they have. This is a much higher risk if the student feels isolated and has no one to talk to about the situation.

As you can see, bullying in schools is perhaps a lot more common than a lot of people think, which is why it’s more important than ever than everybody to having the conversation and coming together to combat it.

The Types of Bullying in Schools

When you think of bullying, you might think of the stereotypical version where a bully meets a smaller child out in the playground to make fun of them and steal their lunch money. While this may be the case, there are plenty of other forms of bullying that exist.

Verbal Bullying

Easily one of the most common types of bullying in schools, verbal bullying is, as the name suggests, where verbal insults are used to victimise an individual or group of individuals. While verbal bullying can be, at times, quite harmless, especially among friends, it can soon get out of control.

Verbal bullying can come in many different forms including teasing, insults, humiliation, name-calling, and generally considered worse, sexualised references, gender insults and racist slurs.

Social Bullying

Social bullying refers to an indirect form of bullying, but it still one of the most common types of bullying in schools. This is where someone will talk about someone else behind their back in a way that slanders the other person’s image or reputation.

This is also referred to as ‘covert bullying’ and is much harder to recognise because it doesn’t happen directly, but the consequences of it can be just as dangerous. It is also used humiliation or to create jokes at another’s expense which over time has social-related consequences.

Social bullying can come in many different forms, ranging from encouraging other people to exclude or avoid an individual, spreading rumours about somebody, lying about them, making nasty jokes about them, or even impersonating them in a malicious way.

Cyber Bullying

Perhaps the most increasingly common type of bullying in schools is cyberbullying. Students these days are becoming more and more connected than ever before and due to them always being ‘plugged in’, the risk of cyberbullying is huge; especially with social media.

Cyberbullying can come in many different forms, whether that’s commenting nasty things on someone’s posts, uploading images or videos of someone, ‘trolling’ them online or sending verbal abuse through private messaging platforms directly, or as a form of social bullying.

This form of bullying is proving to make individuals feel extremely isolated both online, out of school and in school, and is extremely difficult to manage and monitor because it can take place where teachers and parents have no access to.

Physical Bullying

When you think of bullying, physical bullying is perhaps the mage you’ll create in your head and is one of the most widely known types of bullying in schools, as well as being one of the most obvious.

Physical bullying can cover anything from hitting and pinching to punching and kicking. This may be hand-to-hand, or a weapon, regardless of how big or small it is, may be used. The act of damaging someone else’s property also comes under this category.

Preventing Bullying in School with FamiSafe

Know that we know all about bullying, what it is and how it can occur, it’s time to start thinking about addressing the problem once and for all. While, by law, schools need to have an anti-bullying policy in place, it’s not uncommon for parents to feel out of the loop.

After all, you can’t exactly go to the school all the time, and sometimes children can be disconnected from reality and don't want to talk to you about what’s going on for an infinite number of reasons. However, there is a solution that can help you identify the problem and then deal with it.

FamiSafe is a powerful parental control application that works on both iOS and Android devices and helps you stay in the know about what’s going in your child’s life through their mobile devices. After all, with children being so connected, it will easy to find out what’s going on through it.

Once installed, FamiSafe provides you with a number of features that can help. These include;

Suspicious Text

The latest feature added to the FamiSafe software to help in preventing bullying in schools; Suspicious Text allows your phone to receive notifications when your child’s phone receives a text message that contains keywords that indicate bullying. This helps you find out whether your child is being bullied, or is bullying someone else, as well as identifying who else is involved.

Location Tracking & Geofencing

Another powerful FamiSafe feature, you can use the app to track your child’s location at any time using GPS technology. This helps you to figure out whether your child is skipping school or where they are to ensure they’re safe.

To make things easier, you can also set up geofencing parameters that will send you a notification is your child enters or exits a certain area that you define.

Screen Time Monitoring

It’s easy for children to become obsessed with their digital devices when they’re bullied to any degree. Perhaps they keep reading messages and comments over and over again, or they’re trying to post desperately to try and change someone’s opinion.

On the other hand, if your child’s a bully themselves, they may use their device to cyberbully other children, causing distress and harm. Whichever one of these is relevant to you, you can use FamiSafe to see when, where and for how long your child is using their device, ultimately blocking access for as long as you like.

How to Use FamiSafe

Getting started with using FamiSafe is simple, and we’ll show you how in the following steps.

Step #1 - Install FamiSafe onto Devices

Head over to the FamiSafe website and create an account. You’ll then be able to download the app onto both your child’s mobile device and your own. Alternatively, you can search ‘FamiSafe’ in your respective app store and download it there, as well as making an account.

Make sure you’re installing the app on both your phone and your child’s phone.

Step #2 - Setting Up FamiSafe

Once the app has been installed onto both devices, sign in using the account you created on the first step. You’ll then need to select which phone is your child’s phone, and which one is yours using the onscreen menu. After you’ve done this, the app will be sent up and ready to use.

On Android devices, you’ll need to accept all the permissions asked for the app to work fully.

Step #3 - Start Using FamiSafe

To use FamiSafe, simply open the app on your device, and you’ll be taken to your FamiSafe dashboard. On the menu, simply tap the feature you want to use, such as Suspicious SMS, and you’ll be able to use it instantly.

While bullying may remain a problem in schools around the world, by knowing the bullying in schools facts, as well as the types of bullying in schools, and how we can go about preventing bullying in schools, we can all work together to counteract this problem once and for all.