During the recent decade, the social impact of bullying and its technological counterpart, cyber-bullying, has risen to such a degree that we actually felt the necessity to coin a special word to describe a situation when bullying influences desperate teenagers takes their own lives – 'bullycide'. A recent study conducted in the UK by an anti-bullying charity group, Ditch The Label, has demonstrated a striking fact – for every ten bullied teenagers, one is going to commit suicide.

Before we delve further into the matter, we should consider several important points made about bullying in the last decade.

What Exactly is Bullying?

Many parents brush off the unnerving news their children bring from school as just a part of growing up. They clearly aren't aware of the fact that long-term bullying can have disastrous consequences on many aspects of their kids' life. Even today, many people find it unbelievable to explicitly connect bullying with teenage suicides – a kind of ignorance that must be hard to maintain given the degree to which the media expose tragic cases in which the two things relate to each other.

Bullying can take diverse forms – it can be physical or emotional, it can be sexting – sending obscene text messages to the victim, or circulating nude photos of a person, or sharing suggestive messages about someone. Unfortunately, with the rise of the digital age bullying gained new strengths that are just as dangerous as those that characterize its traditional variety.

Cyber-bullying is a kind of bullying performed through the use of social media platforms, which allow for an exchange of files, posting and sharing insulting materials publicly. The potential of cyber-bullying is recognized mainly to the high-profile cases like the suicide of Tyler Clementi in 2010.

In 2011, a Hans Bredow Institute professor, Uwe Hasebrink, has conducted a through research with several other colleagues and published a research study, which concluded that approximately 18% of European youths were stalked, bullied or harassed via internet and mobile phones – the percentage ranging across EU countries from 10% to a striking 52%!

The Impact of Bullying

Mona O'Moore of the Anti-Bullying Center at Trinity College in Dublin aptly assessed the impact of bullying in the following words: “There is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide.”

It goes without saying that bullying can affect many aspects of kids' life, from their school performance to how they feel about themselves. The already mentioned Ditch The Label survey demonstrated that over a half of bullied students felt that it had a negative impact on their studies. Liam Hackett of Ditch The Label, concluded that survey showed “the profound effect bullying is having on children's self-esteem and therefore the future prospects of millions of young people across the UK.”

But that's not all – the survey also pointed out that those who have not been bullied were more likely to do well on their exams. If that's not enough proof that bullying causes serious problems, then we don't know what is.

How to Detect Bullying?

Detecting if our child is being bullied at school is relatively easy – we must pay attention to any unexplainable injuries, loss of books or electronic devices, frequent headaches and stomach aches, or changes in eating habits. Other symptoms include difficulties in sleeping, loss of interests in schoolwork, decline in performance, decreased self-esteem and a wide range of self-destructive behaviors, from harming themselves to talking about suicide. Don't count on your child to initiate the conversation – Liam Hackett of Ditch The Label pointed out: “A lot of young people find it embarrassing to talk about bullying and often teachers are their first port of call.”

Checking if our child is bullying others is a bit more difficult. In order to rule out this possibility, ask yourself the following questions: is my child engaged in verbal or physical fights? Is he/she increasingly aggressive and has friends that bully others? Does he/she have unexplained money or belongings and often gets sent to the principal's office? Is he/she competitive and constantly worried about popularity in school? If you answer 'yes' to some of those questions, you might want to consider talking to your child and opening their eyes about the serious harm brought by bullying.

How to Prevent Bullying?

In the classroom, the best strategy against bullying is reducing the class size. Of course, in an ideal world, bullying would be fought against before it even started – by implementing various policies that create an environment, in which bullying is not tolerated, and managing potential bullies by giving them different outlets, as well as reaching out to potential victims.

Preventing bullying can only be efficient if parents are willing to contribute by means of an appropriate family education – aimed to show that bullying can have serious social and legal consequences, for the victims and oppressors alike.

As far as cyber-bullying is concerned, Liam Hackett of Ditch The Label gives some useful pointers: “If you witness someone being bullied online then report it! Don't ignore it, or share it or 'like' it. Why not even reach out to that person and let them know that they do not deserve to be treated like that?

“One piece of advice we often give parents is to ensure that their children feel comfortable that they can come to them for help by showing that they have an understanding of cyber-bullying issues and ways of being bullied online. Often young people tell us they are afraid of getting in trouble with their parents or that their parents would not understand.”

Indeed, preventing bullying can only be efficient if parents are willing to contribute by means of an open conversation and appropriate family education – aimed to show that bullying can have serious social and legal consequences, for the victims and oppressors alike.