By Zain Anbar
Okaz/Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Experts reported 25 percent of teenagers in the Kingdom are bullied.
National Family Safety Program Executive Director Maha Al-Munaif said studies from King Abdullah Research Center reveal that 25 percent of teenagers in the Kingdom are being bullied.
“The study also shows that 47 percent of school students are being bullied in school. That means there are one or two children out of every four children being bullied at school or face domestic abuse by a relative,” said Al-Munaif.
She added bullied children do suffer from behavioral and psychological problems in the long run.
“Physical bullying is more common among boys than girls, while emotional, psychological and cyber bullying is more common among girls than boys. The study also showed that the rate of bullying has decreased over the years as schools began to take precautious measures,” said Al-Munaif.
She added children and school students all over the world suffer from bullying.
“Bullying can lead the child to commit suicide. Victims of bullying may be beaten, controlled or physically overpowered. That is known as physical bullying. Victims of bullying may also be threatened, intimidated and verbally harassed and that is known as verbal and emotional bullying,” said Al-Munaif.
She added there is also sexual bullying where the bully may use sexual pictures or sexual content to threaten the victim.
“Cyber bullying is when the bully uses social media to send threats or humiliate the victim. The program I run has previously ran one of the first campaigns to raise awareness of the issue of bullying. The campaign ran for 19 days,” said Al-Munaif.
She added the campaign was organized in cooperation with the Safety Youth Committee.
“The campaign received the Women World Summit Award in 2012. The campaign was held in schools and in public places. The campaign focused on conducting studies in the Arab world about bullying and training and educating school teachers, supervisors and guidance counselors on how to deal with bullying,” said Al-Munaif.
