Types of bullying

Bullying can be verbal, social, physical or take place online. Verbal and social bullying are the most common forms of bullying reported by children and young people.

Verbal bullying

Verbal bullying can include:

• name calling
• hurtful mimicking
• insulting
• making sexist, racist or homophobic remarks or jokes
• making verbal threats and intimidation.

Playful teasing between friends can be okay as it uses humour to bring people together. It can lighten your mood, improve relationships and is enjoyable for the person being teased.

Hurtful teasing is done on purpose and unkindly to put someone down.

Social bullying

Social bullying is sometimes called ‘relational bullying’. It involves hurting someone’s relationships or reputation on purpose. This can include:

• embarrassing or humiliating someone on purpose
• gossiping, telling lies or spreading rumours about someone
• ignoring someone or encouraging others to do so
• leaving someone out on purpose or encouraging others to do so
• sharing images that will have a harmful effect on the other person
• unwelcome facial expressions or body language
• playing jokes to embarrass someone
• hurtful mimicking.

Physical bullying

Physical bullying can include:

• hitting, kicking or punching someone
• bumping, shoving, tripping or ‘shouldering’ someone
• physically threatening someone
• damaging or stealing someone’s belongings.

Online bullying

Online bullying is often called cyberbullying and could be on phones, laptops, computers, gaming devices or tablets.

Cyberbullying is concerning because:

• it's more likely to be anonymous
• online content can be shared quickly and easily with more people
• children and young people can be exposed to online bullying at any time of the day, in any location where technology is available.