HELEN: Hi I'm Helen
MARINA: Hey I'm Marina!
HELEN: And today we're talking about how to support friends who are being bullied
HELEN: So, it can be really difficult to have to watch a friend who is struggling with being
bullied and it's often really difficult to know how you can support that friend or how
we can help
MARINA: I think once I was kind of bullied one, so I understand how it feels to be bullied
HELEN:I'm wondering if you were to imagine a friend who was being bullied and who was
experiencing something similar to what you experienced, what you think the signs might
be to look out for for a friend who is concerned
MARINA: Um, you should look out for whether they're acting normal, or acting friendly
towards you, seeing if they're shaking at all, or if they avoid their friends if they're
avoiding going out to school, if they're missing lessons, that's usually the signs that you
can look for for a friend who's being bullied.
HELEN: I guess when you're being bullied it sounds like it's quite easy to withdraw
MARINA: Yeah
HELEN: from your friends and also I guess to withdraw on social media
MARINA: Yeah
HELEN: I guess that can be quite common, too. So those are some of the signs of bullying.
So I'm wondering what somebody could do, what a young person could doif they saw a friend
being bullied?
MARINA:They could tell a teacher, they could go to their parents, they could ring childline
- childline is a very good option for everybody - they have good advice for anyone who wants
advice, and also you can try and give your friend support. I think that you should have
the courage and the confidence to be able to stick up for that friend because if they're
a true friend to you then that's more important than anything in the world and it's not their
fault that they're getting bullied, so you shouldn't ditch them as a friend. But it could
be quite aggressive verbal bullying which could be really hurtful for you and your friend,
so you could get bullied as well, so that's where I would step back. But otherwise, if
the situation seems safe, something you can actually literally stand up to and say "please
stop" then I believe that you can do that, otherwise remember that if there's any aggressiveness,
anything that's physical, then you wanna step back out of the way and you wanna try and
tell a teacher or a parent.
HELEN: Yeah I think that's definitely really good advice. We've talked a bit about what
might happen if you're watching a friend being bullied face to face, or that you know a friend
is being bullied face to face, I'm wondering what advice you might have for somebody who's
experiencing bullying online or has a friend who is experiencing bullying online.
MARINA: Well they shouldn't be afraid to block them or report the person, so that's probably
the best option is to stay out of the way from it and make sure that you're not in contact
with that person, so you don't give them the opportunity to bully you, so you're free from
there.
HELEN: I guess it's like putting up that wall,
MARINA: Yeah
HELEN: In a cyber environment and making sure that person can't have contact with you any
more if that's at all possible in the situation.
MARINA: Yeah
HELEN: I'm wondering if you can sort of talk to us a little bit about how to be there for
a friend in terms of listening to them, and how you might sort of approach a friend in
terms of just listening and being there.
MARINA: Well, yeah. You shouldn't rush them, you should take it slow, help them to understand
what they're going through so they could try and understand that they're being bullied
and try and understand that they do need help, and not be afraid to ask for help, and to
listen to them can be very powerful
HELEN: Yeah, totally, I think listening is such an important thing to be able to give
to someone as a friend, and to be ab;e to be there for a friend who's being bullied.
Thank you so much for coming in to speak to us today Marina
MARINA: Namaste
HELEN: And we will see you next time bye for now
MARINA: BYE!