Bullying on the increase

Why is bullying on the increase? It is reported that 70% of children now admit to some form of bullying.

I have treated a number of children and teenagers who have been victims of bullying, and have experience working with the consequences. I have just been interviewed by Century FM radio on the topic, and it gave me a chance to think about the issue.

In the past, young people may have been the victims of bullying whilst walking to and from school or while they were at school. However with the advent of new technologies more young people are finding themselves the victims of bullying. The internet and mobile phones mean young people can now be bullied in their own home. A person may receive emails or text messages while sitting in their bedroom that victimise them. In addition social networking websites can mean that children can once again be easily bullied as a person without many ‘friends’ on their website is therefore seen as less popular.

Also with mobile phones people are finding themselves the victims of happy slapping another culture that is on the increase. Many people want to video something on their phones and show it off to their friends; as a result of this people have moved to physically hurt other people. In these incidences there are often several people involved and therefore a psychological consequence of this is that people get caught up in the moment of what is happening. A psychological term used to describe this is ‘diminished responsibility’ where as a result of many people being involved in something it lessens the individual responsibility.

So the question remains has bullying actually increased or is it just easier to bully people now? I believe the answer to this is a little of both. Yes it is easier to bully people now due to what I have explained above. However people do appear to have less respect for one another now than they used to, we live in a faster paced society and this coupled with decreasing family values is impacting on the growth of today’s children and how they view life and other people.