It is Impossible to Eradicate Bullying.
Some might think I'm stating the obvious here, but believe it or not there are others who actually think these anti-bullying campaigns and such will make a huge difference and serve as a major step in eradicating bullying. This will never, ever happen.
Why? In my opinion, bullying is simply Darwinism, it's human nature to single out the weak or the different, it doesn't matter if we consider it morally wrong or right, it's just part of our species. That's why it's so common, why most of us have either bullied, been bullied, or both, at some point in our lives. Asking for bullying to stop would be like asking the spider to stop preying on the fly, or asking for world peace. It's completely unrealistic. I'm not saying bullying should be ignored altogether as a result, really what should be done in my opinion is to raise awareness on how a child should handle bullying. Who to speak to, when to speak to them, how to respond, etc. and also to be educated on why this is happening and how it's not their fault. I believe some anti-bullying campaigns include this but for the most part the majority focus on bullying itself and bullies which is almost pointless.
All these celebrities massaging their PR by saying "You know kids, bullying isn't cool!" makes me chuckle whenever I see it. As though bullies are bullying others because they genuinely think it's cool to hurt an innocent person who's done nothing to them, unless they're potentially sociopathic that's not why they do it. It's not even peer pressure, even though some would have you believe that's the case to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions. It's just a basic instinct, and those are not always easy to control, especially for a child. Many adults have difficulty controlling basic instincts such as the desire to have sex with as many women as possible, monogamy of course proves it is possible to control these instincts but if adults have difficulty with them what makes you think for a child it's as easy as "Oh well, bullying isn't cool, better stop then. What's for dinner?" Doesn't work like that, Hulk frigging Hogan saying "Welllemmetellyasomethinbrotha, bullying sucks dude!" ain't gonna cut it when your intention is to suppress what I believe is an instinctual thing. The world isn't all sunshine and rainbows, bullying will always be around in one form or another just as most other forms of conflict will continue to exist as long as we're all still here, breathing oxygen. If a few hundred years in the future we developed some sort of technology that allowed telepathic communication, what would happen? There'd be "telebullying". It's always gonna be here, the key is to learn how to deal with it, not try hopelessly to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure most bullies know what they're doing is considered morally wrong, they don't need to be told as such by a poster, but they either don't bloody care or they have difficulty stopping themselves and later regret it.
Society is panicking lately because we're hearing more often about children that commit suicide who also happen to be victims of bullying, yet there's really no direct evidence to suggest they committed suicide because of bullying alone. It's usually multiple contributing factors such as clinical depression which may have been there even before the bullying, turbulent home life, other psychological problems etc. otherwise everyone who's been a victim of bullying (which is what, 80% of the planet?) would be topping themselves left, right and center. We'd all be dropping like flies. Yes, some experience bullying more intensely than others unfortunately, but most people overcome it and get on with their lives. Some suggest it's a "rite of passage" which I don't like agreeing with because it puts too positive a spin on something that hurts people, but in a way it actually is. What if no one bullied anyone? We'd walk into adulthood completely unprepared for what awaited us. Prejudice, hatred, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, all of these things exist in adult society sometimes to an even greater extent than a school yard. If we all did nothing but hold hands and sing Kumbaya in school, we'd curl up into a ball when we became a grown-up and found out that the world can actually be a cruel place. Early childhood is the time to enjoy yourself and be carefree, once puberty hits however (which is the time when bullying happens the most) it becomes boot camp. It's the time when we all step up to the plate to be counted, we run our obstacle courses, we make friends and we make enemies, we get a taste of responsibility with revision and punctuality, we experience authority outside of our parents, and we're confronted with everything that makes us ready to meet the wide world out there with our eyes open. People are obsessed these days with sheltering children to an insufferable degree, George Carlin said it best when he did a stand-up on what he mockingly referred to as "Child Worship", and he's absolutely right. Children should undoubtedly be protected, I know that as much as the next guy, but let them breathe and give them credit. The important thing to do for your child is to try and make sure there are no other problems that would potentially contribute to depression and/or suicide. Make sure they're cared for and loved, that they know they can talk to you about these things, and teach them how best to handle bullying and any other obstacles that arise during childhood and if it gets out of hand to the point where your child is simply unable to handle it by himself/herself (i.e. being constantly physically attacked by multiple teenagers in a gang that are impossible to fight back against) then you step in and do your best to work together with the school officials in order to resolve the situation. Beyond that, unless there's a scenario I'm not anticipating, direct interference is unnecessary; provide your child the mental tools to work with and allow them to put those tools into practice when the time comes. I know that when the time comes for my daughter to go to secondary school I'm gonna wanna practically jump in and take her place so she doesn't have to deal with all the crap that will inevitably come her way whether from boys or from other girls, but as a parent although it'll be my responsibility to take care of her it'll also be my responsibility to know when to step back and let her find her own footing.
As for this whole "cyberbullying" thing, I'm not sure I buy it, I have to admit. Perhaps it's because as a 25 year-old I more or less grew up without the internet and social networking sites, at least until college. I've neither cyberbullied nor been cyberbullied but I do know that in most cases there are block/ignore options which solve the problem, pronto. Christ, Facebook has options up the ass for managing your friends list and who you do and do not want to see and receive messages from, you can make yourself impossible to search for or delete friends or do whatever you like to avoid this sort of thing, can you not? If you really don't wish to interact with said person(s), there's every opportunity at your disposal to put an end to the attacks with the click of a button. In all honesty, I'd like someone to explain this to me, forgive me if I'm being narrow minded but I don't understand it at all. I haven't yet seen this movie (not even sure I should bother) and I don't see how it's possible to "cyberbully" someone over the internet without perhaps resorting to illegal tactics such as hacking and the like and I'm amazed they actually managed to make a movie about it. I bet they had a really intense font chase at the end, culminating in a final battle between the victim and the bullies where they both used BOLD CAPITALS!! Okay, I realize I'm making fun and I apologize if this offends anyone who was a victim of these heinous... pixel assaults... but I fail to see the larger issue, can someone enlighten me? I'm completely open to discussion and if you feel I'm being insensitive about anything by all means let me know, I think it's important for me to know as much as I can about this topic if it is indeed a serious problem for kids, I don't want to be the uninformed parent.
"All right, rock-paper-scissors for who has to tell the whore to leave."