New data from Kids Helpline shows it received more than 3,500 calls from children and other young people about bullying last year. Five out of six of those calls concerned bullying at school. That has prompted the group to call for more research into the causes behind bullying behaviour and for a shift in the focus.
In recent years, a number of programs have been rolled out focusing on helping children deal with cyberbullying. But Kids Helpline says, in 73 per cent of calls it received about bullying, there was no online nor texting element. As a result, the helpline is calling for an increased focus on why children bully, rather than the technology they use. Kids Helpline chief executive Tracy Adams says society needs to ask where children are learning to bully in the first place.
The release of the data has coincided with a National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence. The day brought together hundreds of schools, students and teachers across the country to try to help find solutions to violence and bullying. Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull has given his support to the national campaign and to other strategies to tackle the problem.
The data from Kids Helpline shows the most common form of bullying involves verbal abuse, exclusion or spreading rumours. Around one in 20 young people surveyed said he or she had endured intimidation, threats of personal harm or extortion and, in 5 per cent of cases, physical assault. A group of primary-school children in Melbourne cited varying theories about why bullying occurs.
Melbourne 10-year-old Thomas Dimovski says a group of children used to call him names and exclude him from activities. He says, at first, he tried to ignore it, but it kept happening.
The teacher then arranged a meeting with him and the children bullying him. The teacher asked the children to stop, but the boy says the bullying continued for some time after that. Then, eventually, things began to change.
Fiona Maelasi is a Student Wellbeing and Diversity Leader at Saint John's XXIII Primary School in Melbourne. She says children need to learn early that conflict is part of life and how best to manage that.
