Any behaviour or action with the intention to hurt, harm or humiliate is now defined as bullying. At least 60 per cent of children will experience this at some point during their school lives.
While childcare experts are reluctant to label very young children as bullies, they recognise that bullying cultures can begin to flourish at a surprisingly early age.
John Quinn, development director at support organisation Beat Bullying, reports that the issue of early intervention was a hot topic at a recent transatlantic video conference which brought together young people from the UK, US and Ireland to discuss anti-bullying strategies.
'American students were particularly keen to focus on children below the age of 11,' he says. 'In the UK we work a lot with primary schools, setting up workshops and assemblies in which bullying can be discussed by all age groups.'
According to Mr Quinn, there can be no doubt that by the age of five a child will know what bullying is and understand the consequences of their actions.
'They will know if they leave someone out of a game or stare or name-call, they will make that child feel unhappy. There are lots of subtleties in the manifestations of bullying and these are not lost on even the very young.'
Someone to talk to
ChildLine reports that calls about bullying have increased by 12 per cent in the past year. Volunteer counsellor Subita Mahtani believes that this is because of a variety of factors.
'Bullying is talked about a lot more in schools,' she says. 'Children are becoming aware that when it happens to them, it is wrong and that something can be done about it.'
Out of the 37,000 calls the helpline receives annually about bullying, more than 4,000 are from children between the ages of eight and ten. One of the most worrying developments is that mobile phones and personal computers have opened up more avenues for the enterprising bully.
Ms Mahtani says, 'Young children as well as older ones often experience a sense of helplessness and sometimes families can give their children the wrong messages about how they should respond. ChildLine encourages children to talk about what's going on and externalise their feelings rather than internalise them. The counsellor offers a sense of security and makes them feel they are being taken seriously, which is the first step to taking control of the situation.'
Despite the rising number of calls, however, Ms Mahtani says she is not convinced that bullying itself has increased.
'It is more a case that children are becoming confident about coming forward to talk about it,' she says. 'We work in partnership with schools, putting up posters and giving children special wallet cards to carry. They can see that bullies are now answerable for what they do and can be punished.'
Too young to bully
When it comes to very young children, misbehaviour can sometimes be interpreted as bullying, but it is a term that most practitioners are cautious about using.
Dr Ann Farrell, based at Queensland University of Technology, is conducting an ongoing study into the case for early intervention, in the context of national crime. Her research objectives are to examine written policies on bullying in pre-schools, to establish the nature and extent of bullying behaviour in children in these settings and investigate definitions of bullying held by early years teachers.
She identifies that historically there has been a lack of research into bullying in early childhood education. 'Perhaps a different lexicon is used by these teachers to describe bullying,' she says.
Many practitioners believe that by the age of four or five, children can be vindictive and have a view on who they do and don't want to play with. They see this as a case of excluding others rather than bullying, and it has to be worked around.
While there are growing concerns about children's misbehaviour, specialists now emphasise looking at how their experiences shape behaviour.
Early years and childcare consultant Sue Griffin recognises that young children are capable of being physically intimidating and excluding others from play. She says, 'I personally suspect that part of the reason for the increase in bullying is that we now call certain behaviours bullying when we didn't in the past, and children are perhaps becoming more ready to "tell".'
The media is identified as a negative influence on young children by child therapist Andrea Clifford-Poston. She believes that it presents bullying as acceptable and sometimes even laudable.
'I am appalled by the number of under-eights who watch a programme such as "EastEnders" which depicts violent and aggressive behaviour,' she says.
'Bullying has undoubtedly been turned into entertainment with successful series like "Big Brother" and "The X-Factor".'
Ms Clifford-Poston says that bullying can be interpreted as an extreme form of persuasion. 'When children feel their needs are not being heard, they may use hitting as a way of making an impact. Adults need to help children to give names to their feelings so they can explain themselves and gain self-control. This is a development stage, not delinquent behaviour.'
Bullies and victims are recognised as being two sides of the same coin.
'Often a bully wants to be the friend of the victim but doesn't know how to go about it,' says Ms Clifford-Poston. 'A toddler will push a child they want to be friends, with but they need to be shown another way.'
Early intervention
With the Government's action plan on social exclusion now focusing on identifying children with anti-social behaviour at an early age, there are conflicting views on how this should be approached.
Practitioners believe it would be wrong to assume that young children who are fledgling bullies necessarily come from poor backgrounds, and that it has more to do with attitude - in terms of the family, childcarers and teachers - than it does with material poverty. Many report that in a deprived area, a child can behave superbly when they are with a practitioner they can relate to.
Preventative strategies in parenting are advocated by the Government's Respect agenda. If parents can meet and develop strategies to deal with children's behavioural problems, this will circumvent the danger of them being stigmatised later on.
That social class is not a deciding factor when it comes to deliberate nastiness is corroborated by Sue Griffin. 'Some of the best documented examples of bullying have happened in the most elite educational establishments,' she says. 'Most early years settings put a lot of emphasis on behaviour development and actively discourage the sort of behaviour that one would call bullying.'
But Andrea Clifford-Poston questions how professionals who are already stretched to the limit will be able to deliver more support services to children and families. 'There will have to be a huge range of these services in place, but without the underpinning financing it's difficult to see how they can operate,' she says.
Meanwhile organisations such as Beat Bullying and ChildLine are working hard to bring bullying out into the open and help both perpetrators and victims.
Beat Bullying's John Quinn says, 'Our work in primary schools has highlighted that many children have no idea how to say hello and how are you, or say any of those nice things which create a friendly atmosphere.'
He adds, 'Giving children befriending skills can make all the difference to life in the playground and create a better environment that leaves bullies out in the cold.'
Further information
* Beat Bullying has joined forces with the new Warner Brothers family film 'The Ant Bully' for a campaign which encourages children to become Antbassadors, and support anti-bullying strategies in their schools.
www.beatbullying.org.uk
* www.childline.org.uk
* Anti-bullying Week , 20-24 November www.antibullyingalliance.org.uk NW