Essay Sample on Effectiveness of Solutions to Bullying

Bullying is a problem that many parents and children deal with on daily basis. Cases of bullying have been on the rise recently. Cyber bullying has provided a new and different platform where bullies can extend their actions. Traditional bullying has been proven to reduce as fewer cases of physical, verbal, and social bullying are reported. However, bullying is an issue that needs to be dealt with accordingly. Bullying is the repetitive hurtful or aggressive behavior towards an individual due to power imbalance. About thirty percent of elementary and high school students and forty percent of middle school students report being bullied once per week. About thirty percent of teenagers confess to either experience or participate in cyber bullying. The prevalence of bullying cases is devastating and the adverse effects are felt by children and parents. Therefore, this makes one ask oneself whether the solutions to bullying are sufficient to eradicate bullying and reduce the pain.

The first method used to deal with bullying is taking care of the psychological effects. Bullying has adverse psychological effects on the victims. Teenagers who are being bullied display low self-esteem and lack of confidence. The other symptom that a child is being bullied is anxiety and fear. The victims undergo so much pain to the extent that some of them even commit suicide. The parents, on the other hand, go through stress and pain either due to worry or knowledge that their child is being bullied. However, the solutions offered to deal with the psychological effects are not sufficient. One way to solve the self-esteem problem is the encouragement of the children and appreciation. It is important to assure a child who is constantly being called names such as ugly that they are beautiful and perfect. The other way of dealing with bullying is taking the child to therapy to get professional aid. The support from friends online and face-to-face also helps a victim to cope with the pain. Despite the efforts, teenagers continue to commit suicide and others end up depressed. This means that the measures put are not sufficient to deal with bullying. Sending an emoji to a friend online consoles the victim but it does not get rid of the pain.

Bullying has many social effects on its victims which also have various solutions. Many children who are being bullied display poor social skills. Some of them find it hard to make friends and have trust issues. A teenager may also seclude themselves from other people. It can be displayed by the closing of social media accounts and avoiding all social networks. Many teenagers undergo humiliation from bullies when embarrassing pictures of them are posted online. The negative comments and criticism, as well as the insults, affect the teenager's social life. The academic performance of a victim of bullying deteriorates due to pressure and stress which makes it hard for them to concentrate on their studies. The remedies set to deal with social effects include tolerance education in schools. The students also play a big role by standing up against bullying in their schools. This ensures that the behavior is highly discouraged. The school administration also set measures like fining parents of bullies to ensure bullying is also not supported at home. Parents also teach their children defense mechanism such as walking in groups and teaching them how to talk to bullies in confidence by role playing. Many of the measures cannot be applied in all forms of bullying especially cyber bullying where a child cannot walk in groups. Sometimes the students in schools are afraid of the bullies and find it hard to stand up against them. Thus bullying continues despite the efforts made to stop it.

Another way of dealing with bullying is ensuring the victims are in a safe environment. Bullying occurs in playgrounds and corridors where there is minimal supervision. Therefore, the victims tend to hide in order to avoid bullies. Some give excuses to avoid going to school and others eventually stop going to school altogether. Many others avoid attending school functions and sporting activities so as to avoid bullies. Cyberbullying can occur at any time which makes teenagers cautious before reading messages, emails or posts online. The measures applied by parents are relocation to a new town or transferring to a different school. The students are also advised to avoid direct confrontation with the bully. The schools set stricter punishments for bullies by suspending and expelling them. They also set cameras so as to ensure supervision even where teachers are not present. However, the actions taken are sometimes not very effective. Some of the bullies also need therapy in order to determine the reason behind their aggressive behavior. Relocation to a different place is not a guarantee that the child will not be bullied in the new environment.

The reason as to why bullying is still an issue is because many individuals do not recognize it as a problem. The notion that bullying is a part of growing up makes it hard for measures to be implemented. The belief that the effects do not last long make individuals ignore the problem. Some adults believe that teenagers need to learn how to deal with bullying on their own. It is seen as a way of preparing a child to deal with challenges in the future as adults. The other issue is that it is not easy to prove that one has been bullied. Cyber bullies are anonymous and use fake accounts which make it hard to take action against the bully. Moreover, many of the cyber bullies confess that they were only joking and did not mean harm. The fact that a child needs to grow up to a hardened adult does not mean that the child should not be protected. Parents should guide their young ones to ensure they deal with their problems in the correct manner. It is important to take note that effects of cyberbullying last a lifetime as the incidents remain online.

Bullying is a matter that teenagers deal with on daily basis. This brings the concern on how bullying affects the lives and emotions of teenagers. It affects the development of a child. If bullying is not dealt with, then the future generation will be affected negatively. Therefore, more measures should be put to ensure the safety of children both emotionally and physically. More resources should be allocated to deal with the bullying problem so as to ensure the victims are protected and that the bullies do not continue with their atrocities. The fact that almost all teenagers confess that they were bullied at some point in their life means more should be done to curb bullying. Just like drug abuse, bullying is a major concern that determines the adults of the future.