► Advice on bullying

No one should be bullied. Often bullies will find any reason whatsoever to bully a person. This might be a physical attack or by name calling. If you feel you are being bullied you should tell someone straight away. If you can’t speak to a parent or friend, try speaking to your teacher or contact a Connexions advisor. You might feel worried but keeping it a secret will only make it worse.

 Statement about a young person who was bullied: ‘A girl at school kept coming up to me at lunchtimes and calling me names, I didn’t want to tell anyone but soon she turned my friends against me. I told my mum and she asked me if I wanted her to tell the teachers or do it myself. I asked her if she could speak to my teacher and she did. Straight away I felt much better and it gave me confidence knowing I did something about it. I didn’t dread breaktime anymore..’

► County Durham Anti Bullying Service
There is a confidential e-mail address where you can contact an anti bullying worker at askbuddy@durhamlea.org.uk 

Address:
County Durham Anti-bullying Service
Copelaw Education
9 Orchard Lane
Newton Aycliffe
County Durham
DL5 6UT

Tel: 01325 372 812

More help4u:
Childline website - The Childline website for advice on bullying.
Anti Bullying website - Working together to stop bullying, raising the profile of bullying and the effect it has on children.
Bullying Information website - Help and advice for young people affected by bullying.
Help with Bullying service - A County Durham service for young people who are a victim of bullying.
Direct Gov website - The Government website for information on bullying.

► Cyber-bullying

A new type of bullying is when people use mobile phones or the Internet to bully people. You might have received an upsetting text message or email or someone might have posted something abusive on your bebo or myspace site. Again never keep this to yourself and always tell someone. If you find the message deeply upsetting and want it removed or the person sending blocked then you can report the message to your telephone provider or the website provider. Below is a list of the contacts for various providers:

More help4u:
O2 website or email ncb@02.com or call 08705214000
Vodaphone website or call 191 from your phone or 08700700191 (Pay monthly), 08700776655 (Pay as you go)
3 website or call 450 from your phone or 07973100450 (Pay as you go), 150, 07973100150 (Pay monthly)
T-mobile: call 150 from your phone or 08454125000

Social networking websites:
Bebo: Go to the ‘Report abuse’ link below the users profile photo
Myspace: Click on the ‘Contact Myspace’ link at the bottom of the page
Piczo: Go to the ‘Report bad content’ button at the bottom of every member page.
Facebook: Below every priece of content there is a ‘Report’ link
MSN: Click ‘help’ tab and this will bring up a range of options including ‘Report abuse’

Childline website -  Advice on cyber-bullying
Direct Gov website - Governments website on cyber-bullying
Bullying UK website - Bullying UK's pages on cyber-bullying
CyberMentors website - Offering help and advice from trained mentors