Anti-Bullying Week 2017

Hello, everyone!

From the 13th November to 17th November, it is Anti-Bullying Week.

As of today, we are just about halfway through the week. In this post, I want to raise the issues of bullying and let you know what you can do to prevent bullying on the island!

Similarly, our community was celebrating Bullying Prevention Month in October. Therefore, this post will be very similar to the one I did on unity and bullying prevention. Regardless, it is always important to make sure that bullying is dealt with the right way online.

On Club Penguin Island, I wouldn’t like to believe that such a thing as bullying would exist but it does, unfortunately. Bullying can be interpreted in many different ways but if it feels like bullying to you, it most likely is bullying. Remember, bullying is repetitive behaviour that intends to physically or emotionally hurt someone.

Here are three easy things to keep in mind when you see bullying!

BE ALERT!

While the Club Penguin Island team try their best to make the island as safe as possible (through the filtering of suspicious words and live moderation), it is not guaranteed that you will be satisfied all the time. Over time, certain players will exploit the chat filter and cleverly word phrases that associate with any malicious behaviour. Whenever you see this happen, the best thing to do would be to report the penguin. It would not be smart to verbally retaliate, even if you intend to encourage others to report the bully; it would just bring more unnecessary attention to the circumstance. Hopefully, we are all responsible enough to report someone when they are in violation of the Club Penguin Island rules. The more people who are alert, the more likely the bully will be caught.

Celebrate Bullying Prevention Month

Hello, everyone!

October is a special month! As well as it is the month of Blogtober, Club Penguin’s Anniversary and Halloween, it is also the month of raising awareness for bullying.

Bullying is unwanted, deliberate and aggressive behaviour that is persistently directed at someone. It is important that it is recognised and stopped immediately whenever we see, wherever it happens. Luckily, Bullying Prevention Month is here to bring change.

In this post, I am going to highlight what Club Penguin is doing to help stop bullying and even give my own advice on how to handle bullying.

Be Heard!

Make sure you log onto Club Penguin Island this month so that you can receive a special Bullying Prevention emoji pack. It contains three emojis: an orange heart, a megaphone, and a pair of orange penguins. Whenever you are on Club Penguin Island, you can use these emojis to remind penguins of what to do when they feel bullied. They are also there to promote friendship and kindness, which is an important thing to celebrate this month.

In my opinion, it is vital that you tell someone if you feel you are being bullied. Telling your parents/carers, your teacher or an adult you trust will bring a second voice to the situation. They will be responsible enough to advise you on what to do if you feel bullied.

Firstly, if you are not sure you are being bullied, you should let one of the persons above know some examples of what has been making you feel degraded. Bullying can be verbal, physical, mental and cyber so lots of people are vulnerable to it today. In some cases, it may turn out that the bullying is not deliberate, therefore you should speak to the people who make you feel uncomfortable and let them know you don’t like what they do. Likely, they are your friends, so they should care about what you think and stop right away.

Secondly, however, it is best to let an adult sort out serious bullying done by someone you are not friends with. If it is done at school, you should tell your parent/carer or teacher and they should respond quickly. If you feel threatened to not tell anyone, you should at least let your parent/carer know and they should contact the police or confidentially discuss the matter with the headmaster/principal of the school. Either that or you could contact the police yourself and let them know that you feel threatened. It is very important that you don’t suffer in silence; there is always someone to help you.