Anti-Bullying Week is an annual event dedicated to raising awareness and taking a stand against all forms of bullying. This week serves as a crucial reminder of driving conversations and initiatives aimed at raising awareness about the often unseen, yet deeply harmful, effects of cyberbullying. By highlighting this form of harassment, it encourages education, empathy, and proactive measures to create a safer online environment for everyone, especially for the younger generation who are more susceptible to its consequences.
On our most recent episode of Inside the Sweeps we have Linda James, Founder and CEO of BulliesOut discusses the lasting impact of cyberbullying on mental health, social relationships, and overall wellbeing, emphasizing the need for ongoing support, prevention, and intervention strategies to create a world where everyone feels safe, respected, and valued.
Alison Bussey
So welcome back everyone. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Inside the Sweeps. It’s Anti-Bullying Week and we’ve got a very special guest with us, Linda James, the brains behind BulliesOut. So, let’s dive into this crucial topic.
Linda, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, BulliesOut and its mission, and what inspired the creation of this organization?
Linda James
Yes, sure. Thank you. So, BulliesOut was founded in 2006, and I did that after my younger son was badly bullied at school. There was sort of a lack of support from the school, and there was not many resources around in the community to help. So originally it was after my son wanted to speak online to somebody to, I suppose, like an online mentoring service. And we couldn’t find one. So that really, I suppose, spurred me on to set up an online mentoring service, and the charity has just escalated from there. And now we do mentoring and counselling, we deliver workshops and training programs to schools, to the workplace, to parents, to educators. We provide resources, downloads, publications, really anything that can help somebody that’s affected by bullying behaviour. And our mission really is to support anyone that’s affected, but we just want to empower people to overcome bullying behaviour and to achieve their full potential.
Alison Bussey
It seems like you have a lot of resources that I don’t always think… When I think back, when I was the kid, you know, bullying was all about, you know, playground drama, you know, teasing and name calling. But I think fast forward to today, I think about kids like my niece, have a totally different experience. She’s come home one day; upset about nasty comments she got on social media, you know that were about her looks. And like the bullying game, seems to have changed now. It’s a bit, you know, you have online hate speech and body shaming that’s causing trouble for kids and teens. It seems like a whole new level of complexity in the world of bullying. So how does BulliesOut define and address different types of bullying? And can you share some insight into maybe more specifics on programs or initiatives your organization has developed to tackle these newer forms of bullying.
Linda James
Absolutely it has changed. You’re absolutely right. And you know, years ago, back when I was at school, quite a few years ago, we used to go home in the summer terms, you know, in the breaks, and your bully couldn’t reach you. Whereas now with most people having access to a phone and the Internet, it’s almost like you’re carrying the bully in your pocket. They can reach you 24/7 in your personal space and that is really traumatizing. And so, with our sessions, we cover everything that is sort of to do with bullying behaviour. So really, the only one of our workshops that actually mentions the term bullying is online bullying. We have one called change in attitudes, respectful relationships, positive friendships, kindness. We challenge stereotypes, we cover, like I said, online bullying, we cover sexting, we cover digital footprint, so we covered a whole plethora of kindness, respect and wellbeing themes, everything really that you know, encompasses the term bullying without using the word bullying if that makes sense because it’s all of these things that are affecting a young person. Bullying effects their wellbeing, it affects their friendships, it is all about disrespect in a person.
And so, through our sessions and the activities, and you know the discussions that we have in these workshops, it is about challenging their behaviour, challenging what they say and why they say it, and making them aware of the impact that their words can have on another person.
Alison Bussey
Yeah, I mean, you mentioned you speak about bullying online and cyberbullying. You know, especially since I, not to age ourselves, but since I was in school, you know, mobile phones weren’t a thing. And we were lucky to have a computer in the house. You know, we had it at school, but it’s like you said, it’s more so following you. You know, you’re always connected.
So, with access to technology not only in the home, in schools, really wherever you go, umm, you know it’s important for schools, you know, to have the computers and be a part of the education. But what is the crucial role that schools play in safeguarding young people from the issue of cyberbullying?
Linda James
Well schools do play a role, and of course you know, they need to be careful with what children can access with when they’re on their premise. But really, it starts at home because at least to the day, it’s the parents that are affording the children these mobile phones and the Internet. And if as a parent you’re going to do that, then you need to make sure that your child needs to know how to use that phone and the Internet respectfully, safely, carefully, and responsibly.
You know, it’s no good handing over a device that really can be a weapon towards somebody else and not giving them any guidance with it, especially as sort of people with a, you know, young people now are having mobile phones younger and younger, and the whole social network thing is massive. It’s huge, and you know, we’re giving young people access to that at such young ages and you know it does worry me because let’s be honest, there’s most of us adults are struggling with how to handle this, and how to manage a massive social network, and we expect children to be able to manage it effectively.
And so, we need to be able to give them some guidance and some and some restrictions. You know, you can have this phone, you can have access to the Internet, because this is the way the world is going, but you know I expect and trust you to use it responsibly. You treat others with respect when you use it. Umm, because that’s what we should all be doing. And you know, you shouldn’t be body shaming somebody else, you shouldn’t be putting up nasty posts about somebody else, and if you see that, then you don’t like it and you don’t share it. It’s literally you step away from it as you would in in the real world, you know, in the in the offline world, and you report it because it’s just absolutely unacceptable. So, it does, although schools have a responsibility, they don’t have, um, you know, they’re not in charge of a child’s mobile phone.
It is all down to sort of, you know, the parents really, as schools are there sort of for safeguarding physically, but they can’t sort of, you know, tell a child what to do and what not to do on that mobile phone. They can educate them with workshops on online bullying, and keeping safe online, but you know they have no rights to take those phones off them or anything like that. That does all start in the home.
Alison Bussey
Yeah, you were mentioning, you know, young people growing up in the online world. The things they post and share you know, really can leave a mark that stays with them. So, what you think is looking into understanding your digital footprint is super important.
So, I think you know, recognizing the power of your digital footprint and learning how to manage it wisely, as you’re saying, I think this helps build, you know, a positive responsible online identity. How do you think we can help educate and empower the younger generation to shape a positive, responsible, and professional online identity?
Linda James
I think it’s making them aware, as you say, that that digital footprint stays with us forever. You know, even if you hit the delete button, it doesn’t matter, it still stays there. And you know it’s asking them how do you want to be, you know if you, if somebody has a digital footprint of view, how would you want to be remembered?
Um, if we were remembered by our digital footprint, would you want to be remembered as this you know, positive, kind human being, or somebody who just shared nasty posts all the time. Somebody who just kept attacking a person online all the time, you know, how would you want to be remembered? And I’d like to think that most young people really would want to be remembered with a positive digital footprint. Because you know it can, we see and hear lots of stories in the media of celebrities who have maybe posted something years and years and years ago when they were younger, and it does come back to bite you, and it can impact your future. And that’s what we’ve got to think about.
You know something you post when you’re a teenager can come back in years to come, and it could impact on your future employment, your future education at university. And it’s that type of thing that you need to think about, and maybe a young person of sort of maybe 12, 13, 14 might laugh now and think, oh well, that’s in years to come, that’s, you know, a long time away. But the years fly by, and a long time where, trust me, I know that’s all of a sudden, it’s a long time away. And those things can impact you and can really have a negative impact on your future, and you know we don’t want that to happen to anybody.
So, it’s about creating a positive digital footprint, um and just doing good things online, and not sharing things, and don’t share something just because your friend has put it up there. Don’t share it if you haven’t read it and you’re not happy with it, and you’re not happy that it’s not abusive or aggressive towards somebody else, because so many people just like and share. Oh, it’s my friend, it’ll be okay, or it’s a family member, it’ll be okay. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be okay, just always be aware of what you’re liking and sharing, and just make sure you create your own positive digital footprint.
Alison Bussey
Yeah, I mean it, like you said it’s, you know, will follow you and I think… I think where they, you know, kids these days grow up with technology and devices, it almost seems like just a… There’s not a lot of thought put into, it’s just easy to like and share. It’s like second nature, whereas you know, if not growing up with that, you might think about it a little bit more. Can you shed some light on some of like the longer lasting consequences of online actions, particularly when it might come to cyberbullying and the impact it can have, like on a person’s life both online and offline?
Linda James
Yeah, we do know. Like here. So, for instance, just something simple, if there’s some university applications, for instance, they do look at a person’s online activity and you could have two university applications and sort of, you know, academically they are so alike, and they’re down to 1 space, and academically you can’t put a pin between them. They are like, who do we choose? Who do we choose? And they look at their online activity, and that’s what they will look at.
Alison Bussey
Wow.
Linda James
This person is positive. This person is posted negativity. We’re not going down that road and so all of a sudden, it could be something simple, they could have liked or shared something that is not as positive as, you know, person A and they’ve lost out on a university place. And that can happen in employment as well because you know these people, they know, they have the power to look at our online activity because nobody wants to employ somebody that’s been homophobic or racist or nasty online. Nobody wants that within their environment. You know, everybody wants a positive environment with which to learn or work, and so that’s what happens. And it’s really, you know, it’s upsetting for a person, but then this is what happens. And so, it’s really important for young people to just be really careful online, really careful, and not only that, you know, to be homophobic, to be racist, it’s against the law.
So, consequences could be far worse than losing a university place, or a or a place in employment. The consequences could be far worse. So, it’s just please, please, just be careful. Walk away from it. Just be the bigger person and walk away from it.
Alison Bussey
Yeah, you don’t need to share everything. I think that’s one of the biggest things with my niece and nephew. I’m like, you don’t need to share everything. No, and not everybody needs to know everything.
Linda James
And as you get older, social media gets boring. Really it does, it really gets boring, and you don’t have time for it, and you think, oh gosh, why did I ever sign up for this? I just haven’t got the time. And you know, I have young grandchildren and like when I say that to them, they look at me as if to say, what did she just say? But, because they’re young, you know, but you know there comes a time when you just think, oh, I just haven’t got the time for this. You know, we post for the charity, and like and share the charity posts and things. But on a personal level, I think for many people after a while, social media came out and it was exciting, and then after a while it’s like, no, I haven’t got time for this.
You really haven’t. There’s more exciting things to do. There’s other things to do, and it’s better to do things offline with my friend rather than online. You know, really, it’s, yeah. Yeah, but I will also accept the fact that they are young and, you know, I wasn’t brought up with mobile phones or computers, and they were. So, it is the way forward for them. But again, it’s just please be respectful, please be responsible, and just be kind. Just be kind on or offline, just be kind. And if you can’t be kind, just be quiet and walk away. You don’t need to share or like a negative post. You really don’t. You really don’t.
Alison Bussey
No, I think you know we talked about the digital footprint. I think ties in really well with being a good online citizen and you know, like you’re saying, it’s kind of what kind of keeps the world, online world, friendly and positive. Are there key aspects of being a responsible and respectful digital citizen? And how can these practices positively impact our online interactions?
Linda James
Yeah, you know what, like we work with a lot of young people and some of them have got their own blog, and they write positive blogs. Umm, and that’s always a good thing. Other people have a YouTube channel, they have TikTok channels, and it’s all positive because you know, I mean, joking aside, the Internet is you know it’s great. It is great.
Like everything, it has a negative side, but that happens throughout everything that that we have. There’s always a little bit of negative to lots of different things. But the Internet is, you know, it is amazing, and it’s opened so many opportunities for so many people. So, you know, young people, they can create positive blogs, they can do positive YouTube channels, and YouTube videos, and they can really showcase their skills and their creativity, and that all goes towards a, you know, sort of to showcase them as individuals, but also it gives them such positivity around them online, and there’s no negativity about it at all. They can turn off comments if they don’t want anyone posting any comments there, so they haven’t got to see anything. And that is just, to have that positive digital footprint for them is really powerful, really powerful, that maybe they do brilliant artwork or, you know, dance, or anything creative then showcase all of that, showcase your skills in a positive way. That’s really powerful. That is really powerful, especially for young people.
We have a lot of talented young people in this world, and the Internet is a powerful way to showcase that to the world. And it’ll be great as well, really great for them. Umm, so that’s always a good start.
Alison Bussey
Yeah, you know, we talked about there’s ways to, you know, share the positive things online, and the impact the Internet has had, you know it is a great, it’s great. You know, we’ve been more connected, and we have all these resources, it provides entertainment. But when we do look at some of the negative aspects of the Internet, I, you know, recently read a person suffering from cyberbullying is one point 1.9 times more likely to commit suicide and victims of cyberbullying are twice as likely to experience suicidal, suicidal thoughts.
So, as we are heading into Anti-Bullying Week, I think raising awareness is key to tackling cyberbullying. So how does BulliesOut get the word out about different aspects of cyberbullying and what it can do and how to stop it? And also, do you have any projects or campaigns your organization has done to make people more aware of this issue?
Linda James
Yeah, of course we use the Internet. You know, of course we do. That is one way of getting the message out there to hundreds of thousands of people. So, we do use the Internet. But we still use physical ways like posters, and flyers, and brochures, and everything else as well for those who don’t use the Internet because there’s still, as my granddaughter terms, dinosaurs around the don’t use the Internet. Yeah, I didn’t like the way she looked at me when she said that either.
Alison Bussey
You’re like, is that something personal?
Linda James
Yeah. But you know, there are people out there who don’t use the Internet for whatever reason. Umm. And so, you know, of course we use physical resources as well. But you know, we get lots of resources out there, lots of messages out there, and we have lots of downloadable activities on our website, downloadable resources. We have activity packs, all the young people can get involved in, we have gratitude journals and the one journal, we always laugh when we mentioned this to young people. We do have a digital detox journal as well, and we say to them, you know, download it or we can post out a hard copy and see if you can detox from your digital devices, you know, even 30 minutes.
Alison Bussey
Start small. We can start somewhere.
Linda James
You know, but most adults will do it for, well, I’ll do it for a day. You know, some say I’ll do it for a week, but it I’m sure if I said to most people, you know, put your digital devices away for a day. They look at me as if they’re, excuse me, but you know to start small just, you know, 30 minutes or an hour. Just put it away, and not look at it, and not touch it, because it is quite empowering when you’re attached to a device all the time and then you put it away for an hour and you haven’t looked at it, and you haven’t touched it. It is quite empowering for a person to do that, so we do have a digital detox journal as well that they can download and use.
Alison Bussey
I think everybody could use a little digital detox every now and then.
Linda James
Of course we can. Of course we can, because you know, I laugh and I joke, but you know, I have a work phone, and I have a personal phone. Umm so and they drive me mad. But you know, at the end of the day, it’s the world we live in, and they’re needed. Um, I do put them away sometimes, but it is tough. It is tough. So, I really appreciate where young people who are born into this world of technology are coming from. I really do. Um, but you know, sometimes we do need to put it away. Uh, we really do. And just have that breather from it. Um and just yeah, forget it’s there for a while. We really do because they can’t go over. And they do.
Alison Bussey
Yeah, with these with these resources and um, you know, the resources on your website and these different downloadable things, can you do, are there any success stories you can share, or examples of the impact BulliesOut has had, you know, whether it’s during Anti-Bullying Week or at large? Any success stories you can share?
Linda James
Lots and lots and lots of success stories and on our website, we do have an impact report as well that can be downloaded and there’s success stories in there. But you know, we just, we have success stories from young people that use our counselling service and tell us that without that service, they wouldn’t be here today because it got so bad for them and that they were considering taking their own lives. And then they found our counselling service, and thankfully, they’re still with us today.
We have success stories from schools where we’ve been able to go in and work with the school and work with their pupils and be able to reduce the incidence of bullying behaviour that they’ve had and increase the reporting as well. So young people feel empowered to report when it’s happening. So, you know there’s a positive when that happens as well. We get messages from parents constantly that we’ve been able to support to, so we support the parents, to support their children, and we’ve also got you the engagement programs as well. And young people join our youth engagement programs and the main one is we ask them to join for a year and throughout that year we work with them, and we build their skills and their confidence. And for many of those young people, 2-3 years later, they’re still with us because they just don’t want to leave. And that’s hugely powerful for us because it’s telling us that we’re doing something right, and for those, sort of not to want to leave that program.
And you know for us, they can stay as long as they want to, as long as they’re benefiting from the program, then that’s fine with us. And we’ve had, we’ve got one young boy, we have a program called Playground Pals, which is setting up like a buddy scheme in the primary schools. And he joined that when he was in primary school, and then he went on to when he moved up to high school, we trained him as a mentor, a peer mentor. So that’s the secondary school version of a buddy in scheme. And so, he trained in that as well. And then he joined our Youth Ambassador program. And now, at 21, he’s one of our core volunteers. So, he’s been with us since he was nine and a half.
Alison Bussey
That is fantastic.
Linda James
And he’s just, yeah, he’s just been with, like, all along. He’s been in our different programs and he’s absolutely amazing, and he says all the skills that he’s learned, he’s at university, but he’s got a part time job, and they’ve just made him a manager, a part time manager, and he puts it down to the skills that he’s learned as well. So yeah, he’s amazing. And we’ve got a few young people like that in our programs as well. So yeah, they bring a tear to your eye sometimes these young people, you know, they really do.
Alison Bussey
I think it’s amazing the impact like you can have on one person, but then they share that impact with others, right? You know, he’s had such a positive experience and he’s able to share that positive experience with others. So, then it just kind of keeps going. That’s amazing.
Linda James
And that that’s it with young people because, you know they are. They are if you empower a young person, they’re really powerful. They really do go on to do amazing things. Um and they really, really can make a difference. And you know, sometimes they really get negative press young people. We know bullying goes on for all sorts of reasons, and we support the person displaying the bullying behavior as well because you know they’re not bad people, they’re behaviour is unacceptable, and we’ve got to address the behavior. But we’ve got to look at why that’s happening as well, because if we don’t address that, we’re never going to break that cycle of bullying. And so, we you know, we work with anybody that’s affected by an incident of bullying, and support everybody within that that complete cycle.
And so you know, when you can do that, and when you can you know you can empower it, you can empower them, and the incident then is resolved and you know maybe they’ll never be the best of friends but there won’t be any bullying anymore then that makes a big difference, that makes a huge difference, and that’s just that’s all we want that’s all we want we want to make a difference to young people and we want them to be able to reach their full potential and for them to then make a difference to their own lives and to their lives to the lives of others as well. And then you know, they’re the next. You know there’s future workforce, aren’t they?
Alison Bussey
Exactly.
Linda James
They’re the next generation and we just want them to be a really positive kind generation and I think we can do that.
Alison Bussey
I think we can too.
Linda James
I think we can if it’s in all of them, isn’t it? It’s in all of them. It’s just all about education, you know? And not necessarily formal education, it’s about talking to them, a lot of explaining and a lot of empowerment, and positivity, and sometimes that’s what they want. They just need to be listened to. And that’s we can do that we can do that not just us, there’s lots of organizations out there that can do that and it’s you know that we just need to let them know that we’re here and that we can help.
Alison Bussey
Exactly. So, does BulliesOut have anything happening this week for Anti-Bullying Week that we’d like to share with the audience?
Linda James
Well, my goodness me, yes.
Alison Bussey
Probably lots and lots.
Linda James
Yeah, we were looking at our calendar earlier. Somebody asked us if we could do something, and we were looking at it thinking oh. probably about midnight, you know. Yeah, yeah. Do you open your school at midnight? But, yeah, yeah, we’ve got lots of, we’ve got lots going on. And so, we are starting on the weekend with our youth, our Youth Ambassador, a meeting and training program, and then we’re going into schools up and down the country. We’re going into workplaces; we’re working with parents, we also work with the Anti-Bulling Alliance who are in London and of course the theme is making noise and it you know that’s what we’re doing.
We’ll be on social media. Lots of different things to be going out on social media, and it’s just about people making a positive noise about bullying behaviour, and just gosh, honestly, our heads have been spinning with trying to book everything in because you only get one week and it’s like it’s not enough. It’s not enough. We need more time to fit everybody in and so we probably have, although it’s only Anti-Bullying Week, we have about a month because we have to get everybody in and yeah, and we also have our school staff awards as well. So, here we recognize, each year we recognize the school staff, and so they’re nominated by young people and a panel of young people choose the winners. And the winners are announced in Anti-Bullying Week as well in England and Wales.
Alison Bussey
That is so cool. I like that they get that their uh, their student nominated and voted. That’s amazing.
Linda James
Yeah, all about your people all about young people. So, the panel. Yeah, there there’s a panel of young people that choose. They’re shortlisted and then another panel, a panel shortlist them a panel, then choose the winners. But they’re all nominated by young people, and it can be any member of school staff, it doesn’t have to be a teacher. It can be a, you know, a teaching assistant, it can be a lunchtime supervisor, it can be the school receptionist. It can be anybody that has gone above and beyond with, you know, help them with anti-bullying, with kindness, with wellbeing, and so you know, we’ve obviously, they’ve given us the winners, but we can’t announce yet until we go in and we present the awards to the teachers and then they’ll be across social media as well. So yeah, that’s something that we really do look forward to because the children are always so excited when they find out that their teachers won. So yeah, it’s amazing. Yeah, it’s really good.
Alison Bussey
I think that’s a really cool initiative to that. I mean, you’re in, in the UK, but that really could be adopted anywhere that could be adopted in school, like that’s a really good way to kind of go up. I think that’s just really, really cool.
But as we wrap up, I wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me and share about your amazing organization and the work you’re doing to raise awareness about bullying. But I just wanted to let you have the last word before we leave. Are there any closing thoughts or comments you’d like to leave our audience with?
Linda James
Just if we can help, I know we’re you know we’re across the pond, but you know we our counseling can be virtual, our mentoring can be virtual as well. We’ve got lots of resources that can be downloaded, and we’ve got a contact form on our website if anybody needs any help, just take a look at the website and drop us a message if we can help further. And just remember, you know a positive digital footprint that is so important, so, so important.
Alison Bussey
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. Linda, it’s been a great conversation.
Linda James
You’re welcome, Alison. Thank you so much for inviting me.