City of Red Deer
Victim Services
Bringing Knowledge & Awareness Regarding Bullying of Older & Younger People
Bullying
What Is Bullying?
The act of bullying involves the following characteristics: a a conscious, aggressive, deliberate repeated hostility, and a power imbalance with the intent to harm another individual. There are many places where bullying can occur, such as the community, in school, in the park across the street, and in sports teams and clubs.
When a child is bullied for a long period of time, they are more likely to suffer physical, emotional, and psychological scarring that can last a lifetime. Bullying can cause kids to lose confidence, lose sleep, suffer stomach aches, panic attacks, and nightmares. In turn, this causes them to perform poorly at school, possibly narrowing their career options. The constant unrelenting bullying can result in children’s depression and stress, causing them to take their lives.
Bullying can come in various forms, including:
- Cyber bullying: using the computer or other technology to harass or threaten
- Physical: assault and sexual assault
- Social: exclusion from peer groups, ganging up, ridiculing, extortion or stealing of money and possession
- Verbal: taunts name calling and put downs, threats and intimidation
Bullying Comes In Many Different Forms
- Threatening or abusive emails or texts.
- Spreading gossip, secrets, or rumours that damage the reputation of another person.
- Sending hurtful communications under an assumed identity by breaking into someone's email account.
- Blogging or creating websites that have stories, cartoons, pictures or jokes that ridicule others.
- Utilizing polling websites to ask visitors to rate individuals in a negative light.
- Photographing someone in an embarrassing way and then emailing the photo to others.
- Getting someone to reveal personal information via instant messaging, then forwarding that information onto others.
- Using someone else's password to edit another's profile in order to reflect offensive content such as sexuality, racism, and other racial views.
- Posting harmful or false messages on online message boards or chat rooms.
- Omitting others in your instant messaging or email contact lists.
Services, Tools & Support
CyberBullying
While being bullied in the school yard still takes place today, bullying now has many more avenues to use in harming people. Teens have access to the world through technology like never before. They have access to social media such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and more. Newer social media types are emerging all the time. Unfortunately social media and email can be used can be used in a negative way having adverse effects on people especially our youth.
Parenting In a Digital Age
While many young people today have access to smartphones it can be a challenge to safeguard your child from these threats 24/7. You can click on PREVNet to learn what you need to know and what to expect when your child goes online.
Child Fact Sheet
Resources & Services
Red Deer City Victim Services Unit
We Will Help You Every Step Of The Way
Red Deer Victims Service Unit