Kids Behaving Badly: Help is at hand
It will come as no surprise that bullying goes on in schools, but as Panorama reported this week, increasingly there is a new type of harassment taking place - .
Like any kind of bullying it can ruin victims' lives and the key to making it stop is for anyone who experiences it, or who knows it is taking place, to speak out.
But the sexual dimension of this kind of bullying means that it can be even harder to talk about.
If you are a student who is a victim of sexual bullying, or knows someone who is, there is a lot of help and advice available to you online. The same can be said for any adult who is worried that a child they know is being sexually bullied.
Here are some of the best places to seek help:
is the free confidential helpline for children and young people in the UK. You can talk to ChildLine about anything - no problem is too big or too small. Their number is 0800 111.
is the first charity in the UK established specifically to prevent bullying and child sexual abuse. It also offers a parents' anti-bullying helpline on 08451 205 204.
The provides a host of advice and information for children, young people and families. Anyone concerned about the welfare of a child can call 0808 800 5000.
is an Anti Bullying helpline that was launched at the beginning of September 2008 to provide support for victims of bullying and their families. You can call the free helpline on 0800 169 6928.
UK & Ireland aims to stop child sexual abuse by encouraging abusers and potential abusers to seek help, and by giving adults the information they need to protect children effectively.
exists to help all parents - mums, dads, grandparents, stepparents, other friends and relatives - anyone who is bringing up children. They provide support and information on anything that is troubling you, including advice on what to do if your child is being bullied. You can talk things through by calling them 24 hours on 0808 800 2222.
is a national charity committed to improving the mental health of all children and young people under 25. They offer various leaflets for parents and young people about sexual abuse on their website. You can also telephone the Young Minds Parents Information Service on 0800 018 2138.
The following also offer online advice and support:
Comment number 1.
At 6th Jan 2009, Stephen wrote:Instead of so-called tax-cuts a sizeable-chunk of the £4 billion should go to online multiple audio-video surveillance with school classrooms, corridors, playgrounds, toilets...; ALL teachers, pupils, parents DNA... to be held in perpetuity.
Is there a 'benefit' to hushing-up rape, murder... in a given school?
Are knuckle-draggers on the streets complaining about paedophiles 'happy' for 5yo perpetrators to get-off scot-free?
Tax-cuts are not a 'price worth paying'.
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Comment number 2.
At 8th Jan 2009, thrionrichter wrote:this is quite a frightening new aspect to the failings of modern society. the effects of this media-saturated culture has created and perpetuated its own stereotypes and assumptions.
I feel the issue is just one of a talked down series of major issues facing modern youth. and this talk of children knowing about sex in such detail, or to such an extent is something i could have revealed 10years ago... it is rather suprising how much we do not understand about the current youth, and with the rise of gang culture we have widened the gap.
touched on in the programme the mistake of parents trying to be a childs friend, I think we have to admit that this is a modern failing, a chain of generations making a failing every generation and now witnessing the failings, as traditional parenting is seen as obselete or outdated in modern society and no practical approach [one that actually seems to work] has been found...
but parenting isnt soemthing i have experience in, as i am only 19. which means i can recount my recent years in this modern school-youth and i was not the most impressed by the lack of respect between sexes, the crushing peer pressure, the arrogance of children is astounding... and it does seem that the majority of the people i witnessed beiong 'inappropriate on mass' where the mid and low graded pupils, i think that the issue isnt their lack of achievement i think its the system they are expected to work to, where a C or D, though on paper, marked as a pass is put down as poor achievement... and so the routes they go down are routes where they find personal achievement, things they can put into their comfort zone, and gang culture gives these senses. it communicates better to their wants, rather than communicating the need or creating a want for betterment,... and so by association, the gang cultures influence from the americas etc etc is also a negative influence.
the only thing i can praise is the seeming inclusion of young people in building an understanding, it does seem ,from a non-parent persective, of some niavity,some MASS niavity and communications need to be opened to understand before we act, two things we need to do very soon........
but the system is flawed, the standards are flawed and approach seems also to be flawed. [this hushing up of an incident within a shool is disgusting! to think this is probably to save the reputation of the school at the cost of a victim is unfair]
Our priorities are mis-aligned, nationwide.
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Comment number 3.
At 8th Jan 2009, pixiefromheaven wrote:I was quite relieved that Panorama address ed this issue of sexual bullying. It was happening in schools 11 years ago; I was assaulted in a classroom at the age of 14. The school were immediately aware of the situation but didn't act. My parents demanded a meeting where we were told that the 2 boys in question both had terrible home lives and we should feel sorry for them! I had to stay in the same class as them until the end of the school year. Nothing else was done and as I've grown up it has continued to affect me socially and psychologically. My life has been damaged to protect the school's reputation. My biggest question is, if it had happened in a work place with adults, what would have been done: police? formally charged? prison? But because it happened in a high school it was all accepted as some sort of sick teenage development! I shivver when I think of what has happened to those 2 boys as they've grown into men.
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