The first time Daniel stopped talking in class, nobody noticed.
It wasn't a sudden change, but a quiet retreat: it started with him no longer raising his hand, then with sitting in the back row, and later with making up excuses to avoid going out to recess. By the time his teacher realized what was happening, Daniel had been eating alone for weeks, receiving anonymous messages on his phone, and pretending to be sick to avoid going to school.
There were no shouts or fights. Just stifled laughter, shared memes, rumors, and glances that gradually erased him from the group. No one insulted him out loud, but everyone knew what was happening. That's the power of... Silent bullying: destroys without leaving visible marks.
The new face of school bullying
Bullying is no longer limited to the classroom or the hallway.
Today, it follows the child home, infiltrates their phone, and appears disguised as a joke on TikTok or a message in a WhatsApp group. According to the UNICEF Spain Report 2024One in four teenagers claims to have suffered some form of bullying or cyberbullying, and 40% confesses to having witnessed it without intervening.
Direct insults have been replaced, in many cases, by digital social exclusionNot being in the group, not being labeled, not receiving a response. And that emptiness hurts as much as an attack. Children live connected to an environment where acceptance is measured in followers, and rejection is experienced as a form of social ostracism.
Today's bullying isn't always visible to adults because it doesn't happen right before their eyes. It hides behind screens, algorithms, and group dynamics where the aggressor isn't always the strongest, but rather the most popular. The victim, on the other hand, often shares a common pattern: insecurity, isolation, and a profound difficulty in asking for help.
The role of silence
The group's silence is as harmful as the bully's actions.
The fear of becoming the next victim, indifference, or the false belief that "kids will be kids" normalize bullying. But behind every bullied child or teenager, there is a chain of adults and peers who looked the other way.
Education and social intervention professionals know that Breaking the silence is the first educational actNaming bullying, talking about it, and pointing it out respectfully and without judgment is the starting point for transforming it. However, in many schools it is still difficult to recognize, especially when there is no physical violence or when the victim does not fit the expected profile.
The importance of accompaniment
When a child is bullied, their emotional world is shattered: they lose trust in others and in themselves. At that moment, the role of the adult—whether teacher, counselor, or social worker—is not only to intervene, but also repair trustListening without minimizing, validating the pain, and offering protection are gestures that can make the difference between hope and despair.
The institutional response cannot be limited to punishing the aggressor. restorative education It offers more humane and effective alternatives: spaces for mediation, group work, developing empathy, and understanding the harm caused. But none of this will be possible if the victim is not attended to first, if their self-esteem and sense of belonging are not rebuilt.
Often, the bullied child doesn't seek punishment, but understanding. They want to feel part of the group again without fear, they want to regain their voice. Therefore, educational intervention should be geared towards give it back the spotlight: give them space to talk, decide and heal, not to relive their pain.
Educating against everyday cruelty
Bullying isn't just a failure of the education system; it's a reflection of our social culture, where humiliation has become a spectacle and empathy seems like a luxury. Social media has normalized constant exposure, snap judgments, and mockery disguised as humor. In this context, teaching empathy becomes a countercultural act.
Adults must be visible role models of respect. Every gesture matters: how we speak about others, how we treat difference, how we respond to injustice. Teenagers learn more from what they see than from what they are told. And if they see adults remaining silent, they learn that silence is normal.
Hope as an antidote
Daniel, the boy who one day stopped speaking, finally changed schools. There he found a tutor who asked him, calmly, “What happened to you?” That simple but sincere question opened a crack in his silence. Little by little he began to smile again, to participate, to trust. Not because the pain disappeared, but because Someone saw it.
Bullying thrives on invisibility. The best prevention is to observe, to be present, to not let anyone disappear into a group. Empathy, listening, and early intervention are not just educational strategies: they are acts of everyday justice.
Because silence also hurts, but Words can heal.
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