Advice

The signs

Bullying takes many forms, like name-calling, hitting, spreading rumours, stealing, excluding people and turning someone's friends against them. You can also be bullied via abusive text messages or online.

It's not you, it's them

Although it's hard to feel sorry for bullies, it might help to understand that happy people don't need to make others feel unhappy or small. It's the bullies who have a problem, not the people they target.

What to do

• Speak out. You have the right to live without being tormented. Keep a diary of what happens. It'll help you decide what to do. It should also stop you missing out anything important and help show you're telling the truth.
• If you're being bullied through texts or phone calls, save messages and call records if you have space in your phone. If not, write down the time of the call/text, what was said/written and the caller/sender's number if you have it. And don't reply to any texts ? it's just what the bully wants.
• If you're being bullied in a chatroom, don't respond to nasty comments. Name and shame the bully: make it clear to everyone in the room who is bullying you so other users can support you. Good chatrooms are moderated, so email the moderators/hosts and complain, using examples from the chat.

Who should I tell?

As many people as you can. Sometimes just having things out in the open can be enough to make bullies stop. If it's at school, any of your teachers should be able to help (your school should have an anti-bullying policy). If you can't tell your teachers, ask a parent or another adult to speak to them for you. If you don't trust any adult enough, the websites and helplines below may help.