Monday 16 November is the start of the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s (ABA) 2009 Anti-Bullying Week, focusing on ‘cyberbullying’ by text and on the internet. The ABA aims to ‘reduce bullying’ and ‘create a safer environment for children’. But why has bullying become such a big issue in recent years? The notion that children can be ‘scarred for life’ as a result of insults hurled at them by their fellow pupils has become accepted as common sense. As a result, the raft of behavioural codes that now regulate playground behaviour, and the increasingly interventionist role of adults in children’s disputes, is seen as a necessary and humane development. Anti-bullying initiatives are widely considered an unquestionable good thing, since critics would appear to be apologising for bullies. But with the definition of bullying expanding to include electronic name-calling and even exclusion from particular friendship groups, is the issue less clear-cut than it seems? And do anti-bullying campaigns really work anyway?

Critics suggest anti-bullying initiatives can do more harm than good. If teachers are encouraged to protect pupils from every playground spat, could it undermine children’s ability to to handle difficult events in the future? Does the concern with cyberbullying reflect an unhelpful broadening of the definition of bullying? Or is it imperative that adults try to nip potential problems in the bud before they escalate?