School bullying is nothing new. After all, our grandparents even experienced this painful part of childhood.

However, since their days of childhood and even our own childhood days, bullying has escalated tremendously. With the rise of technology comes a new way for bullies to terrorize their victims.

As a result, it’s a huge problem that only seems to keep growing. Why is this?

The Reasons Child Bullying Continues to Grow

There are a number of reasons why child bullying continues to be an issue among today’s school kids. A few of those reasons are listed:

My child is not a bully!

Parents of bullies tend to be in deep denial that their child is capable of such ruthless behavior. They envision their child as being too wholesome to terrorize other children. Worse, they consider their child to be a victim of such allegations.

No parent wants to neither accept nor admit that their child is hurting other people. After all, they’re not raising their child to be cruel towards others.

Furthermore, parents of child bullies believe their child’s bullying conduct is a bad reflection of their parenting skills. As a result, they feel embarrassed.

So, to avoid any of these emotions, they deny the truth. This only worsens the situation because the bully foresees this as permission to continue their bad behavior.

My child isn’t being bullied!

Parents of bullied children don’t fare better. They too are in deep denial; except in this case, they deny that their child is the victim of bullying.

Some parents believe that admitting that their child is being bullied is a sign of that child’s weakness. Therefore, to avoid having others view their child as weak, they refuse to acknowledge there’s a problem.

This only worsens the situation. The victimized child, who feels betrayed by his own parents, remains silent while submitting to torture.

Kids will be kids

As stated earlier, school bullying is nothing new. It goes back generations.

Nonetheless, given its level of cruelty, it’s actually abuse.

Consider these two facts about the adult world:

• To ridicule another adult is called verbal abuse
• To torture another adult is called physical abuse

Both ridicule and torture transpire in child bullying. Therefore, child bullying is not “kids being kids.” It’s plain outright abuse.

And like any type of abuse, it’s dangerous to the point of fatality.

Unseen behavior by teachers and administrators

Teachers and administrators seldom witness bullying, and there’s a reason for this: the bully carefully hides his behavior from authorities.

So, when a parent talks to a teacher or principal about bullying, they’re often unaware of such behavior transpiring. Even after the teacher or principal is made aware of this problem, the bully continues to discreetly torture his victims.

Cyber bullying: The New Way of Bullying

Gone are the days when bullying happened only at school. With social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even emails, the internet is the new place of torture.

This is why bullying that occurs online is called cyber bullying.

Here are two examples of cyber bullying:

• Your child, after being ignored or gossiped about at school, receives threatening or malicious emails or texts at home
• Derogatory pictures and comments are posted on one or more social media sites for your child and others to view

In other words, child bullying doesn’t stop at school anymore. It’s now a 24/7 occurrence – courtesy of the internet. And despite its entrance into its victims’ homes, most parents are unaware of it happening.

Conclusion

“It takes a village to raise a child.”

This is definitely true in the face of today’s child bullying issues. Parents and school officials must work together to fight back against bullying.

No longer can parents afford to be in denial. This isn’t the time to dismiss child bullying as “kids being kids.”

Every child bullying situation should be taken serious and handled appropriately. Otherwise the outcome could be a fatality that leaves us asking, “why didn’t we do something?”

Pamela “Penlady” Jones is the author of Schoolyard Bullying: How Parents and Children Can Handle Child Bullying. This eBook is available for purchase at Amazon.