Bullying

Rationale and approach

The children's council has chosen bullying as one of the topics they want to discuss.

Review of council meeting Sept. 29, 2021 and Feb. 2, 2022

During the Sept. 29 council meeting, council members brainstormed with each other about what the difference is between bullying and teasing, as well as where bullying occurs and the consequences of bullying.

Conclusions

Different forms of bullying:

• exclude;                        
• scolding; 
• kicks; 
• hitting;
• online bullying:
  • online gossip;
  • hate profiles; 
  • Sharing photos and videos that you are ashamed of.

Consequences of bullying:

• It hurts a lot, sometimes still when you're already an adult;
• Feeling like you're doing everything wrong;
• feeling sad and alone;
•  getting bad grades in school;
• going to school reluctantly;
• are afraid to make new friends;
•  not being able to sleep well;
• start believing what the bullies say about them.
• Bullying also affects the bullies and the rest of the class.

In this meeting, council members chose which organizations they wanted to have a conversation with about what actions are important in addressing bullying.

Unfortunately, due to Corona measures, the council meeting on December 1 did not take place.
During the council meeting on February 2, council members delved further into three topics in order to then arrive at an opinion, namely: 

1. bullying at school; 
2. bullying outside of school;
3. cyberbullying. 

To discuss these topics, the organizations Movare, Impuls and the police were invited. Unfortunately, the police could not attend the Feb. 2 meeting.

Bullying at school

Within the theme of "bullying at school," the bullying protocol was discussed. More attention needs to be paid to the protocol. Most children's council members do not know if there is a bullying protocol at their school. Questions the council members had were: what exactly is a protocol? What approach does it contain? Is the approach still current? Who makes the protocol? Is it a protocol per class or for the whole school? 

It was also noticed that teachers each address and discuss bullying in his or her own way. It varies from little to a lot of attention in the classroom and a personal to a group approach. The council members also see a difference in how strict teachers are, what punishments are given and whether it is always the same for everyone. Bullying often occurs in free situations, which makes it extra difficult. For example, during breaks in the schoolyard or other situations that the teacher does not see. Safety to discuss it then anyway is important. Easy methods are an important point. Examples are:

• Discuss bullying within social-emotional classes or training sessions;
• Upon entering the building, indicate the feeling of the day via an emoticon;
• a booklet of your own with which you can also communicate with the teacher by writing.

Bullying outside of school

Within the theme of "bullying outside school," Impuls' support in combating bullying was discussed. Impuls has several tasks, such as:

• deployment of itinerant youth workers in the neighborhood; 
• the use of the youth bus;
• the youth centers;
• conducting classes/workshops. 

It turned out that the awareness and commitment of Impuls was not too great. Youth centers were also hardly known.
The children's council members recounted examples of bullying behavior that took place in certain neighborhoods. A hotline at youth workers so that immediate action could be taken was suggested by the children's council. The use of itinerant youth workers, of the youth bus and referral to youth centers could be expanded. This also applies to the offer of classes/workshops at school and even at after-school clubs. There was also discussion about expanding more attention in the area of cyberbullying and the focus on social media.
Impulse shares the opinion of the children's council. The conversation of the children's council members with Impuls was considered positive by both parties. They would like to do this more often.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a form of bullying. Because of the great influence it has, this was discussed as a separate topic.
What was seen as positive is that there are a number of good websites (including www.pestweb.nl and www.vraaghetdepolitie.nl). On these there is clear information on how to react and protect yourself from cyberbullying. You can even report it to the police with proof in the form of screenshots. However, the fear of consequences from bullies is just as great as with physical bullying. Furthermore, the council members indicated that school needs to raise awareness about cyberbullying. After all, cyberbullying happens 1-on-1 in secret on the one hand and also in group apps or other forms of social media whatever others see. As with physical bullying, there is a group of bystanders who find it difficult to address bullies about their behavior or seek help. Often, cyberbullying also expresses itself through harsher or more hurtful language than physical bullying.
Although in this day and age, online education has become almost commonplace, cyberbullying is also dangerous. Especially at times when the teacher is not yet online. As with bullying at school, there is a big difference in how differently schools deal with cyberbullying. Differences in making the topic discussable, but also how to deal when cyberbullying from outside the school then continues within the school.
Finally, the council also noted differences within social platforms (including Whatsapp, TikTok and Instagram) on how to protect against cyberbullying. For example, with one "social" it is easier to block or correctly follow someone than with another social. It was also noted that on TikTok you cannot use English swear words, however, swearing with Dutch words is possible.
The council members and their peers are trying to come up with solutions. One example is to create a group app called "no swearing app" and where you are then not allowed to use swear words. A call for everyone to keep negative opinions to themselves has also been suggested as a possibility. Another idea from the council members is for swear words to be automatically converted into positive words via autocorrect.

Overall conclusion 

The Children's Council concludes that the issue of bullying is a difficult problem to solve and one that children can suffer greatly even when they are older. Bullying in itself is not punishable, but forms of bullying such as assault, threatening and stalking are punishable.
No matter what form of bullying takes place, the most important thing is not to keep walking alone with it, but to ask for help. Asking for help can be done by family, friends, teacher, confidant, etc.
Asking for help can be done by the child that is being bullied, but also by bystanders or the bully himself.

Advice and recommendations

The Children's Council advises: