Drawing: Lim Ju Hee
What makes a person bully others? Find out more about what makes a bully tick at Bullies: Who's a bully? on the PBS It's My Life Website for school children.
Go to this PBS site and click on "Bullies" to listen to what some school children have to say about bullies.
Learn more about bullies.
New studies on bullying find that bullies have often been victims of bullying themselves and that victims sometimes become bullies themselves. To learn more, read Vijai P. Sharma's article Profiles of Bullies and Victims in Mind Publications.
Read this article:The Effects of Being a Bully
*2011 update:
Bullying: How it affects those who bully.
Send your opinion.
- Bullying is definitely bad for victims, but how might it have bad consequences for the bullies themselves?
Often children have been strongly affected by their unhappy experiences at home as a child. They were bullied or mistreated by their parents. Sometimes as a result, they become bullies at school, and then when they are older, they will very likely mistreat their own children and will not set a good example for them.
For example, they will beat their children or scold them violently. As a result, their own children may become bullies, too. As adults, their children might not be able to adapt to social life because they are used to harassing other people, bullying them and putting them down. They will ignore other people and they don't want to pay regard the opinions of other people, so they become social misfits.
Posted by: Mi Hye Ahn | March 16, 2005 at 11:26 AM
I think that bullying is a one-sided act, in which one person harasses other people. A bully attacks other people and does not respect them, so I think bullies are mean people.
Posted by: Mi Hye Ahn | March 18, 2005 at 06:36 AM
Sure! The reason why bullying is bad for not only the victim but also the bully is that bullies are people who have problems which came from their hard childhood. If when they had problems, adults such as teachers and parents had helped them, they could have become mature people. Another reason is that bullies don't have a happy life. Hating others is as bad as being hated by others. So, when it comes to emotional problems, the bully is also the victim.
Posted by: Sujeong Hong | March 18, 2005 at 06:41 AM
Bullying effects everyone in a negative way, even the bully. If bullies pick on others, sometime later they will repent that bullying and be hurt by their own behabior, and that will last the rest of their lives.
Posted by: Eunjin Kim | March 18, 2005 at 06:42 AM
When bullies grow up, a lot of them regret the way they treated people in the past. Also bullies are considered like devils, which shows bullying is really bad for the bully.But bullies are not mean. Usually they bully because of reasons.
Posted by: Demba | March 18, 2005 at 06:42 AM
I think bullying is bad for the bully, too because if a bully hits other classmates, they end up hating him. He may lose a lot of friends and have a problem forming relationships with people. Consequently, bullying produces bad results for the bully, too.
Posted by: Lim Ju Hee | March 18, 2005 at 06:46 AM
I think bullying is bad for the bully, too. When bullies hurt or frighten weaker people, maybe they don’t think it’s their fault, but as time goes by, they may realize how bad they bullied and how much the victim suffered. And then they might feel sorry for their victims and regret having done such a thing. Therefore, bullies also have a hard time.
Posted by: Seo, InJi | March 18, 2005 at 06:47 AM
In my opinion, bullying is bad for bully, too. As I saw many bullies, they usually recieved low grades and could not have high enough GPA to get into high school. Most bullies do not have any friends. They just stick with three four students who behave similarly. They just isolate themselves because they think they are better than others. I am sure that one day, bullies will regret what they have done.
Posted by: Yong Jin Lee | March 18, 2005 at 06:58 AM
Bullies enjoy bullying and the victim's pain. They are just mean people because they do not care about other students. Also they always form a group and harass only one person. That is a very mean and unfair thing to do to a victim. Generous people never hurt weak people, but mean people always bother weak people.
Posted by: Sung Hwi Chung | March 18, 2005 at 08:03 AM
Bullying is bad for the bullies because they face a bad situation if victims ask teachers for help. The teachers get angry at the bullies and may punish them. Also, if victims kill themselves, the victim's parents sue the parents of the bullies for a lot of money.
Posted by: Akira Sasaki | March 18, 2005 at 08:10 AM
Yong Jin Lee,
I agree with you. Bullying is bad for bullies. Do you think bullies really think they are better than others? I wonder if they have such low self-esteem that they seek attention in any manner. That is regretful. My hope is that they will learn to regret their actions in time to help us learn ways to help others who are bullies change their ways. Do you have any thoughts on how we could keep them from isolating themselves with others who are like them?
Posted by: Anne Davis | March 28, 2005 at 02:33 PM
Akira Sasaki.
Yes, bullying is bad for the bullies. They face punishment and maybe even being sued. How do you think we can make bullies aware of the consequences of their behavior? How can we make them care?
Posted by: Anne Davis | March 28, 2005 at 05:55 PM
Hi, Anne. Thanks for being interested in my comment. In my opinion, other students should talk to the bullies first. The bullies never talk to other students first because they think others do not want to be friends with them because they always harass students. However, if students begin to behave nicely to the bullies they will feel that they are not isolated anymore. I know it is really tough to talk to them first, but students need to be brave enough to help the bullies to be good students.
Posted by: Yong Jin Lee | March 29, 2005 at 07:09 AM
Bullying actually is not good for victims or for bullies. Victims are physically bullied and feel mad. However, bullies also have a sense of loss. Usually, bullies don’t pay much attention to their schoolwork or studies and can’t make good friendship with other students. They will not be successful because of their bad scores and they will not have any good friend who can help them a lot because they have only friends who are bullies, too.
Posted by: Yan | April 15, 2005 at 08:47 AM
Many bullies are influenced by their home eviroment because they have a lot of stress in their home. They want to get rid of stress by bullying other people, and if they are raised by violent parents, they learn to behave that way. Because of bullying, not only victims but also bullies must have bad consequences. I think bullies will have mental problem from bullying, and they can be influenced even when they grow up. So if they marry, it is quite probable that will use violence in their family. Even if they don't want to that, it can happen unconsciously. So bullying brings ruin not onlyto victims lives but also to bullies lives.
Posted by: Lee, Eun Hyun | April 17, 2005 at 09:18 AM
I agree with everyone. Bullies are mean people who hurt others for pleasure. They bully to stand out, to be popular, to have a laugh. I'm sure if someone were to bully them they would understand what it feels like to be bullied, but you can't stoop to their level. Also, the schools should be invovled in this.
Posted by: Christina | April 20, 2005 at 01:54 PM
I think bullies are mean people. Sometimes people say that bullies bully because they have low self esteem and are not secure with themselves but I think that is no excuse for them to hurt other people. Bullies need to grow up and realize that soon school will be over and they'll eventually have to face the real world. If they do not show respect towards others, they will not be respected themselves...deservingly.
Posted by: Lindsay Erin | October 19, 2005 at 10:44 AM
I know for a fact bullying can lead to attempted suicide because sometimes the victim feels maybe the bullies will stop if they're not around anymore.
Posted by: Cori Cameron | March 28, 2007 at 07:27 AM
Bullying is bad because it makes you feel scared, upset and you feel like there's something wrong with you so you decide not to come to school to avoid bullies. I think they bully because they have stress or they think they are cool.
Posted by: A reader | October 22, 2007 at 07:13 PM
I think bullying is bad because bullies tease, harrass and follow us. I sometimes think bullies think they're cool and they can do anything they want. Bullies are just misery makers, kill joy liars, deceivers, betrayers, and back stabbers. 80% of people that have been bullied become bullies.
Posted by: Natassia | October 29, 2007 at 02:53 PM
I think that it is bad to bully kids because it is wrong and you can really hurt people by bullying them.
Posted by: Latisha | November 07, 2007 at 04:11 PM
I think bullying is bad because it can hurt other people as well as you.
Posted by: Jueun Chung | November 12, 2007 at 06:31 AM
Bullying is bad. It's wrong and it hurts people's feelings!
Posted by: Ollie | November 17, 2007 at 05:06 AM
This kind of stuff has to stop! Look at all this and ask yourself what you can do. That 14 year old girl commited suicide because her parents didn't care and neither did everybody else and now she's gone. Ask yourself if you knew her. Ask yourself what you could have done to stop those 3 girls from bullying her and stop them from making that girl commit suicide. Hey I'm just a kid, but I have a big and open mind and I don't care what everyone else says but that girl could have been saved from commiting suicide.
Posted by: Moiz Ahmed | December 03, 2007 at 05:03 PM
I am against bullying, too. I am also having an event at school to talk about bullying and to say how bullying affects people and what it does to them and we're also going to have activities that have something to do with bullying and how to prevent it.
Posted by: Faduma | March 03, 2008 at 12:40 PM