Yeah, I get your points on that one. Though I can ignore them and laugh and not get bothered one bit, unless like you said, they mess with my friends. Then oh man, I like to have a ball. :D

Yes, I completely understand what you're trying to say. Kids, teens, adults, there's a HUGE difference in how we react to things, like if we've been on the net for a longer time, we can also tell when someone is new online because of how they react to things, isn't it? And I agree! I just think, you know, when a kid is young, I mean... There are so many things they don't understand, and if assholes prey on these innocent minds, I think they should stay away. Like my bro. I only let him use Neopets, because all he does is game, win currency and buy things. Oh, and let his pets starve to death. But if I know he's online somewhere else, the first thing I do is research, and if I see the site is messy and fishy when it comes to people, tell my father so he blocks the site. Why? Because I know my brother's not old enough to understand how horrible and mean people online can be, and I'm trying to protect him because people online don't give a shit how old you are, they just want to see their e-dick grow and feed off of angry responces. Parents and supervision, I guess, like you said. (:

I kind of hate to jump in here without reading everything, but so many big posts and my brain just phazes out. I just saw a line back there of Mons's
This struck a chord with me with regard to cyber bullies especially. Because I've always thought that cyber bullying is so prevalent because it's so easy. So I wonder if some people end up being online bullies because in general it's going to have no effect on their real lives. Someone who's bullied themselves can turn the tables and bully someone else online. Because the anonymity gives them that confidence that they don't have in RL.

(I apologise if someone's said all this already)

I was bullied at school, because I was a whole heap of bulliable things all rolled into one convenient package! I was brainy, I was ugly, I had glasses, I had horrible teeth (they're a bit better now), I had a noticable moustache (I bleach that now =_=), my mum didn't let me shave my legs, she also made me wear her horrible ugly old shoes to school, she also used to trim my hair along the top of my glasses so I looked like Frankenstein. Then we moved to a different part of the country, so not only did I get bullied in a new school about all those things, but also because I "talked all posh".

It escalated from being called mean names and getting picked on to physical bullying in the school here. Some girl called Lynne Housam (oh yeah, I'll always remember you, girl!) Kicking me repeatedly in the shin and getting me to say words like glass and bus....

Ooh, what's this in the window *kick*, is it glass? *kick* oh no, it's glarrrse *kick* go on, say it *kick* etc... =_=

Weren't school days just awesome?

I never did anything about it. I didn't particularly react to the bullies either. But then that's just how I was. I grew up never reacting to things, never daring to because I was scared of my mum as she used to hit me, so maybe that trait stood me in good stead with regards to Lynne, because she started not bothering with me after a while, and moved onto another victim.

I'll say that it's the internet that has taught me to speak my mind to be honest. Because that ingrained habit of not showing a reaction to anything was with me right up until I started using the net in my late 20s. As any female online knows, you have to start learning how to deal with creepers and perverts pretty quickly, and that liberated me really.

I wonder if the next batch of kids will learn anything from bullying, I mean, whether the face of bullying is changing because it has another medium now. GAH, I can't find the words that I want : / I suppose that, like everything, some will cope and learn better from finding out about stuff at an earlier age in a "safe"environment and so on, and at the other end of the spectrum there will always be the ones who kill themselves because of what's been done to them.

So maybe, while the methods may change, the end result generally remains the same :/ Humans are horrible *shrugs*

I meant from the victim's end, being able to stand up to bulling, and how much of the bullying you "take in" if you are less confident, you are more likely to believe everything someone says.

Does that make sense?

But bullies themselves probably bully because they are immature, and part of it is they lack self-esteem--I know, I was a bully in high school. People finally stopped picking on me in middle school when I downed a girl for fucking with me--and then in high school I was angry and resentful and all sorts of "I hate myself" and I started to be the bully.
I've grown out of those feelings (mostly) but I still find that the bullying habits stick around with you--you have to consciously make an effort to change, even long after the feelings of low self-esteem and you're "grown up" a lot.
Plus, I'm sure there are people who have all sorts of other reasons--but one thing that I find is consistent, is how victims react. If they have low self-esteem, the bullying affects them more--if they don't, they care much less what others think of them.
And people who have been bullied, are much more likely to become bullies themselves, too.

I've never really had esteem issues so I wasn't as much bothered by it until the bullying got physical. I spent a lot of time in high school being ready to throw down at any moment.

Can't say I've ever been the bully. I step on toes every now and then but I rarely target specific people. I do find that I'm always tempted to take someone's ego down a notch if they're being snotty but usually I refrain. I'm an adult now an I'm not as touchy as I used to be and my expectations of people are considerably lower than they once were. I'm not surprised by them anymore and bullying is just something that I've come to expect. Even adults behave spitefully to one another or ostracize each other, I tend to just stay out of it all. I see it now more as part of a pattern that humans fall into that, while sad, is sort of just the way things are.

My younger sister use to get bullied really badly because of her red hair. Boys use to throw paper at her and put gum in her hair, girls use to call her names. She had a really tough time and when she approached the school they didn't want to know. Teachers didn't seem to care or understand the seriousness of bullying.
Luckily there was some form of karmic justice, when I my sister hit sixteen she shot up and became super pretty, the type of pretty that doesn't need any make up at all, really naturally beautiful. She was seriously stunning and all the boys that had been nasty to her suddenly wanted to be her friend and go out with her, and my sister got the satisfaction of telling them to piss off.

I wonder if it was that mental wall that I had around myself that stopped me from being permanently affected by bullying. As I just basically shrugged it off and got on with being me. I used to get picked on for being fat in primary school D: I was skinny! I never understood that, but, the one girl who was my friend was fat...so I was fat by association? O.o GAWD kids are weird and mean! :lol:

Me and her were only friends because we were both kids that no-one else liked xD Wow, when you look back on your school years, they were pretty damn FULL of nasty crap, weren't they?

1) If I were the victim of physical bully, what should I do?
well, my answer would be : I'll learn some skills (martial arts: karate, kick-boxing,etc.) to defend myself. Next time, they won't be able to bully me anymore. If it's not helping, I'll hire some bodyguard or maybe gangster to 'deal' with them.

2) if I were a victim of mental bullies, what would I do? :
hmm..quite challenging..for the first time I'll ignore the talk. Then, if they still don't want to stop, I'll ask someone to get a record of what they have done to me and hand it over to someone necessary (principal,headquarters,etc.) especially the bullies parents.
For some reason getting help from the adults really helpful.but, after that there's no guarantee that you won't be getting bullied, again.

3) cyber bully : I don't know how to deal with that but if I were ever bullied in cyber ,I'll surely hack those who did that to me.

Case close.