What is bullying?

Primary student
Years 3–6
Article

Bullying is when someone:

keeps picking on you again and again and tries to make you feel bad
says or does lots of mean things that upset you
makes fun of you a lot
keeps taking your things
tries to stop you from joining in or tries to make others not like you
keeps physically hurting you, like hitting or pushing you.

Bullying is not ok and it is not your fault. You have the right to feel safe.

Bullying feels awful. You feel like you can’t stop it.

Bullying can happen in person or online. It might be something people can see or it might be hidden.

Sometimes you might have a fight or an argument with someone. If it happens just once, it is not bullying, even though it can be upsetting. It is also not bullying if you sometimes fight with a friend and you can sort it out.

Bullying is when someone tries to make you feel bad over and over.

Why do people bully?

There are a few resons people bully:

Sometimes people bully because they are still learning how to behave with other people.
Sometimes they might bully because they’re going through a tough time or being bullied themselves.
Some people bully because they want to feel important or powerful, or they bully to try to fit in with a group.

None of these reasons reasons make bullying ok, but they do help to show that being bullied is not your fault. Nobody deserves to be bullied.