After a year of drawing apart, how can we unite?

This week was Anti-Bullying Week. The 2020 theme: ‘United Against Bullying’. Children’s Wellbeing is a critical part of our work and we have a manifesto for brands to help ensure that advertising to children is age appropriate, promotes positive messaging and values and avoids glamourising negative behaviours.

But, for all we can say and write on the subject, it’s the words of people who are dealing with bullying, every day, that can speak so much better than us.

Iesha is the PR & Fundraising Campaigns Officer at Mermaids, a charity supporting gender-diverse kids, young people, and their families. They shared their thoughts and experiences as well as the work being done by Mermaids to combat bullying at home and in the workplace:

Before there is courage to become, there must be confidence in who you are. This is something that bullying robs of those who are on the receiving end. Words and actions steal little by little the light that we are all born with. Often bullying is based on people being different- no one deserves to be made fun of because of how they look or act. And if we witness this, we must refuse to be an audience for a bully, we can all do something to prevent or stop it. Not laughing, not encouraging these acts, reporting, and speaking up about it. Before anyone is trans at work, they are trans at school. We all deserve to be our authentic selves without fear of bullying or retaliation. Show up for one another by standing up to bullying.

I feel like as children when we’re asked what we want to be when we grow up, answers reflect who we see and what we see them doing. People who look like us or have similar lived experiences — anyone we can relate to on some grounds; we find them as a point of inspiration. But what about children who never really see themselves? This is the reality for so many trans and non-binary children. Although things are getting better regarding representation, it is not enough. It will never be enough until every trans and non-binary child can look up and feel seen, heard, and appreciated.

Our campaign #TransAtWork is a campaign that is contributing to just that! Empowering youth by spotlighting and celebrating trans and non-binary people succeeding in different ways. Highlighting that success looks different for everyone. It shows the younger generation that they have options, that life is filled with so much for them. To me it gives hope, and this hope subconsciously gives courage. I believe that our trans and non-binary youth can look at this and have the same feeling. Courage to believe, courage to stand strong and courage to speak out.

Bullying exists in so many forms. It’s charities like Mermaids, The Anti-Bullying Alliance, Ditch the Label and BulliesOut (to name a few) that are fighting to create systemic change. As brands, agencies, and publishers, we can all do more to help by creating and promoting positive content.

Brands are starting to prioritise this issue and are striving to make changes to the messages they send via their advertising. O2 is one of these at the forefront of this change. In their words:

“Brands can prioritise this issue and strive to make changes to the messages they send via their advertising. O2 is one of these at the forefront of this change, with its long-standing partnership with NSPCC and work with the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Tracey Herald, head of Partnerships & Social Impact shares:

Advertising is a feature of modern life and the protection of children is enshrined in the ASA’s Advertising Codes. At O2, we don’t market to children or young people under 16 years old, although we recognise that many parents are happy for their children to use our products and services. That’s why we focus on making the online world safer, by inviting our customers to age-verify to access appropriate content and partnering with the NSPCC to offer tools like Net Aware to help parents keep their children safe online.’

This is more important than ever as children’s time spent online increases and new apps, sites and games emerge. O2’s research shows that 63% of parents are worried about bullying through a smart phone, but 48% don’t feel supported enough to deal with it.”

We encourage the ad industry to be a force of change and support people like Iesha and organisations like Mermaids. Children react and mirror what they see and in this age of access to information on so many screens whether at home or on the move, we all should be doing everything we can to ensure the images and messages we share are supportive, inclusive, and positive.

Its only through working collaboratively with schools, parents, government, tech companies, the media, influencers, and young people themselves that we can make a change and help make bullying a thing of the past. See what commitments you can make to your advertising with our children’s wellbeing manifesto and practical actions.