National definitions have been developed by the MCEETYA ‘Safe and Supportive School Communities’ management group and used in the National Safe Schools’ Framework (2011), and form part of BCE’s lexicon
Aggression:
Aggression is words or actions (both overt and covert) that are directed towards another and intended to harm, distress, coerce or cause fear.
Bullying:
Definition for Teachers, Parents and Carers:
Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individual or group towards one or more persons.
- Cyber bullying refers to bullying through information and communication technologies.
- Conflict or fights between equals and single incidents are not defined as bullying.
- Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved including bystanders.
For use with younger students
Bullying is when someone targets another child again and again and tries to make them feel bad. They say or do many mean and hurtful things, make fun of them a lot, try to stop them from joining in or make others not like them.
Although it isn’t nice if someone says or does something mean to someone else, we don’t necessarily call that bullying. It also isn’t bullying if children of the same age have a one-off argument.
For use with older students
Bullying is when one student (or a group) targets another student again and again to upset or hurt them.They might hurt them physically, try to socially isolate them or say and do many mean or humiliating things to them.
Although it’s neither respectful nor acceptable if someone behaves in a mean or aggressive way on one occasion, it isn’t considered bullying. A fight or disagreement between students of equal power or status isn’t considered bullying.
What is NOT Bullying?
There are also some behaviours, which, although they might be unpleasant or distressing, are not bullying:
- Mutual conflict - which involves a disagreement, but not an imbalance of power. Unresolved mutual conflict can develop into bullying if one of the parties targets the other repeatedly in retaliation.
- Single-episode acts of nastiness or physical aggression, or aggression directed towards many different people, is not bullying unless it becomes a pattern of behaviours.
- Social rejection or dislike is not bullying unless it involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others.
Conflict:
Conflict is a mutual disagreement, argument or dispute between people where no one has a significant power advantage and both feel equally aggrieved.
- Conflict is different to bullying because there is always an imbalance of power in bullying. However, poorly resolved conflict situations, especially those involving friendship break-ups or romantic break-ups sometimes lead to either aggression or bullying.
- Conflict can be a precursor to bullying where there are instances of repeated conflict and where the balance of power changes.
Covert bullying:
Covert bullying is a subtle type of non-physical bullying which usually isn't easily seen by others and is conducted out of sight of, and often unacknowledged by, adults. Covert bullying behaviours mostly inflict harm by damaging another's social reputation, peer relationships and self-esteem. Covert bullying can be carried out in a range of ways (e.g. spreading rumours, encouraging a third party to engage in bullying behaviour, conducting a malicious social exclusion campaign and/or through the use of internet or mobile phone technologies).
Cyber bullying:
Cyber bullyingis a term used to describe bullying that is carried out through internet or mobile phone technologies. It is often combined with offline bullying. It may include a combination of behaviours such as pranking (i.e. hang-up calls), sending insulting text messages, publishing someone's private information, creating hate sites or implementing social exclusion campaigns in social networking sites. It is also cyber bullying when a student uses technology to run a multi-step campaign to bully another student (e.g. setting another student up to be assaulted, video recording their humiliation, posting the video-recording online and then sending the website address to others).
It is important to recognize that cyberbullying is a form of bullying, and as such schools should already be equipped to deal with the majority of cyberbullying cases through their existing Whole School Student Behaviour Support Plan.
Cyber safe behaviours:
Cyber-safe behaviours are defined as the safe, respectful and responsible use of internet and mobile phone technology.
Cyber exploitation:
Cyber exploitation is the use of the internet or mobile phone technologies to take advantage of another. Examples include: asking others to send sexually explicit photographs of themselves or publishing such images; stealing someone’s identity and impersonating them (e.g. to subscribe to services or purchase goods and services in their name); using unscrupulous sales tactics (e.g. pop-ups).
Cyber fight:
Cyber fight is conflict that is carried out through the use of mobile phone or Internet technologies.
Cyber harassment:
Cyber harassment is a single episode of aggression (e.g. an insult, threat, nasty denigrating comment) against a specific student carried out through internet or mobile phone technologies.
Cyber risks:
Cyber risks are potential risks that students are exposed to when using Internet or mobile phone technologies. These include: the temptation to misuse technology, cyber exploitation, self-exposure and cyber bullying.
Digital Citizenship:
There are 9 elements in digital citizenship: Access; Commerce; Communication; Literacy; Etiquette; Law; Rights and Responsibilities; Health and Wellness and Security.
Discrimination:
Discrimination occurs when people are treated less favorably than others because of their race, culture or ethnic origin; religion; physical characteristics; gender; sexual orientation; marital, parenting or economic status; age; ability or disability. Discrimination is often ongoing and commonly involves exclusion or rejection.
E-Crimes:
E-crimes are illegal actions that are carried out through the use of the internet or mobile phone technology. They include: child exploitation material, fraud, impersonation or identity theft, or sending words or images that cause offence, distress, menace or threaten. Most of these are crimes under Australian federal law but some are also (or only) crimes under some Australian state laws. It is important that students understand that the production or distribution (including texting and posting) of lewd images of themselves or others may constitute child exploitation material with a potential criminal penalty and that some of these activities can be construed as bullying.
Flaming:
Flaming are online “fights” using electronic messages with inappropriate/angry and obscene messages.
Harassment:
Harassment is behaviour that targets an individual or group due to their identity, race, culture or ethnic origin; religion; physical characteristics; gender; sexual orientation; marital, parenting or economic status; age; ability or disability and that offends, humiliates, intimidates or creates a hostile environment. Harassment may be an ongoing pattern of behaviour, or it may be a single act. It may be directed randomly or towards the same person/s. It may be intentional or unintentional (i.e. words or actions that offend and distress one person may be genuinely regarded by the person doing them as minor or harmless). Harassment is unacceptable and needs to be addressed as part of creating a safe school but it would not be considered bullying if any one or more of the following three features were present.
- It occurred only once and was not part of a repeated pattern.
- It (genuinely) was not intended to offend, demean, annoy, alarm or abuse.
- It was not directed towards the same person/s each time.
Online hate websites/Bash boards:
Bash boards are websites (or other online sites) that have been established for the purpose of bullying another student. They contain insulting and contemptuous remarks or images and encourage others to sign on and indicate their hatred of a nominated person and add more disparaging comments.
Sexting:
Sexting is the sending of sexually explicit messages or photographs of oneself or others, using mobile phone technology either by request or spontaneously. It can also include posting of this material online. A student’s current, or potential romantic partner, may be the source of a request to engage in sexting. Such photos may be sent (without permission) to many other people, or used to coerce or blackmail after a relationship break-up.
It is important that students understand that the production or distribution (including texting and posting) of lewd images of themselves or others may constitute child exploitation material pornography with a potential criminal penalty.
Brisbane Catholic Education schools are committed to ensuring the young people in our schools are safe and protected from harm of all kinds, including self-harm such as sexting.
The increasing incidence of sexting illustrates what happens when students lack the ability to make judgements about what constitutes right behaviour. The ability to know right from wrong, and to make sound ethical decisions, does not arise intuitively or happen by accident.
Teaching young people how to make responsible decisions is embodied in the Church’s teaching that “the dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral conscience” (Catholic Church, 1776). For, “at the heart of all Catholic moral and social teaching is a single fact: the respect given to an individual human person must always be first and must govern every law and action so that the person’s life and dignity is always and everywhere protected and defended” (Kagan, 2012).
Brisbane Catholic Education has a responsibility to intentionally foster the capacity of young people to know how to: respect themselves and others; connect with others in just and loving ways; make decisions based on an informed conscience; and manage the changing states of relationships that in no way diminishes themselves or others. This learning offers young people a moral and ethical framework that can guide them in making responsible, loving and just choices, including how to use and not misuse the technology that they are surrounded with.
Supportive Bystander Behaviour:
Supportive Bystander Behaviour is when the actions of a supportive bystander can stop or diminish a specific bullying incident or help another student to recover from it. A bystander is someone who sees or knows about child maltreatment, harassment, aggression, violence or bullying that is happening to someone else. Supportive bystander behaviours are actions and/or words that are intended to support someone who is being attacked, abused or bullied.
Violence:
Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person(s) that results in psychological harm, injury or in some cases death. Violence may involve provoked or unprovoked acts and can be a single incident, a random act or can occur over time.