When it comes to bullying victims, it becomes obvious that the portrait of bullying victims is always the same.
Bullying is everywhere and it also hurts anyone.
The same are the mechanisms of persecution; the same the effects on the victim.
And their silence strengthens the abuse.
Vulnerability, fear, shame, unsecurity are what bullying victims feel because of bully’s persistent, neverending abuses and persecutory behaviours.
So, how can you help victims to stand up against bullying?
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First of all, don’t let them alone.
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Then, listen to them even when they aren’t speaking.
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Finally, pay attention to their behaviours.
They may not ask for help, but that doesn’t mean that help isn’t wanted. It is up to you to help them to tell the truth or talk to an adult and ask for help.
Encouraging reporting of bullying means being halfway there.
Bullying victims don’t speak out, don’t stand up against bullying because they are afraid. They are alone. No one supports them, neither their peers for fear of reprisals, nor teacher and parents because both of them often ignore the facts.
New media do not represent a threat, but one of the possible means, just a more formidable place for borderline behaviours to happen, ranging from youth deviance to psychology of groups and bullying.
In a complex and almost unexplored environment, as the internet is, early detection and continuous supervision over kids, tweens and teens are aiming at impeding the worst consequences and unlawful conducts connected to those phenomenons.
But the mechanisms by which youth, expecially teens and tweens, become victims or co-authors of internet-related crimes against someone else, be it stalking, injury, diffamation, cyberbullying or identity theft, have always their origin in the real life, where the youth live, act and move.
So, bullying common places are the schools, the gym, the park or other location where entertainment takes place.
Bullying doesn’t consists in a single act of violence or verbal attack; it’s the repetition of violence against someone else that is bullying.
Bullying happens when the attack from a single offence turns into persecution.
Persecution originates from within the social relationships and the one-to-one interactions, but it also generates severe consequences from the legal side and the psychological one.
Moreover, as persecution persistently goes on, it will cause long-term harmful effects on victims.
Only a few victims ask for help and denounce. The most get blocked by fear.
A very small percentage, as we mentioned in the article “Online Bullying Threats and Facts”:
…. the 2014 survey also found that 24% said that they would not know what to do in the event of cyberbullying (“how about stay away from the bully’s page and block the bully from your page?”).
are aware of such a violence, of its gravity and consequences.
Young victims don’t know how to defend and why it is absolutely necessary.
The fear of reprisals or punishments from their parents or the risk of not receiving from them their beloved promised smartphones foster the silence of young victims, together with the shame and the fear they feel.
Silence, Shame and Fear Are #Bullying Best Friends. Put an end to them. Put an end to Bullying. — MBevangelist (@Mobbible) 6 Novembre 2014
So we have to convince and help bullying victims to change their mind, beliefs, attitudes, in order to get it over with shame, fear and silence.
