School Bullying in South Korea

By Yurok Han and Hyeonwoo Park

South Korea’s economic and technological growth greatly aided the field of education. There is a great variety of benefits such as increased funding, interactive classrooms, and native teachers recruited from abroad, yet schools still struggle with the same challenges as in the past. We are adamant that readers have seen numerous cases of school bullying while watching the news or surfing the web. There were several cases which shocked both local and international communities. As a parent, friend, or student, you might feel indignant, frustrated, scared, or hurt when viewing such stories. Parents send their kids to school hoping that their children will study in a safe space surrounded by friendly classmates and motivating teachers.

We believe one of the most fundamental problems is the fact that most people do not even know the accurate definition of bullying. A bully is someone who uses their strength or power to hurt or frighten other people. Thus, bullying can be diverse in its nature. To understand the scale of school bullying in South Korea, we would like to share some recent statistics.

According to a survey by Blue Tree Foundation, since 2001, there have been 6,200 students who experienced bullying between the second and eleventh grades. Interestingly, the number of bullying incidents decreased in 2020 amid the COVID-19 wave. However, group ostracization grew as a result of increased internet usage, consequently leading to growth in cyberbullying.

Once we had a look at the current state of affairs, we could not help but ask ourselves, “Why do people bully?” According to the field of psychology, bullying is a coping mechanism against stress or traumatic experience in the past. Traumatic experiences include the divorce of parents, the death of a relative, or the addition of new family members such as younger siblings or step parents. Kids who fail to positively respond to stress end up emotionally or physically hurting those around them. Now, adults, at least some of them, have knowledge and tools to channel their frustrations via meditation, exercise, or other such activities, while school children do not always know how to express themselves or ask for help. Also, children often do not know whether they are being bullied or feel ashamed to share their experience with adults, thinking that it will make the situation worse. Often some forms of bullying are presented as jokes, which makes it harder for students to speak out because they are under peer pressure.

There are physical, verbal, social, and cyber forms of bullying. While the meanings of the first two will be clear to readers, we would like to shed a light on the last two types of bullying. Social bullying often happens behind the victim’s back. Actions that are intended to harm a victim’s reputation and social acceptance are considered to be examples of social bullying. Moreover, actions that cause humiliation to victims are included in social bullying. Cyberbullying is booming in South Korea nowadays. This is especially true since the outbreak of COVID-19, which pushed teenagers to engage in social media more than before. The reason why it is a perfect place for bullying is that internet users usually use nicknames. Therefore, it is easier to cause harm but remain behind the curtain unpunished. Although, it is possible to track down the IP of harmful users, it takes time. Harmful information such as insulting comments or photos and videos uploaded without the victims’ consent might spread through the web before being taken down. Initially, we thought that using real names might make people accountable for their actions because if their identities were known, they would think twice before writing some petty comments belittling people around them. However, this approach might cause more issues related to privacy. Another remedy we thought about were age limits preventing students at school from using social media, or stricter monitoring by social media companies, which would help to prohibit the posting of insulting comments. In the end, the only real solution is for everyone to think before they upload a message – unfortunately, most people do not.

To solve these problems, the social response system to bullies should be improved and actively utilized. The first solution is to build a trusting connection between schools and children where students trust in the school system. Thus, they can ask for help from a teacher, a school counselor, or other authority figure. The second step is to make sure that the bullying incidents are thoroughly investigated, the bullies are punished, and the victims are treated and compensated if necessary. Last but not least is the need for assessment. Societal and educational institutions should provide therapy sessions not only to victims, but also to bullies, so that these kinds of incidents do not happen again. Of course, such solutions are always easier said than done. While researching, we came up with some saddening figures related to the social response system:
— 24.3 percent of bullies were scolded by teachers.
— 18.2 percent of bullies were scolded by parents.
— Less than 21.5 percent of bullies got any punishment.

Finally, the fact that the assailants can delete their school records of bullying two years after graduation causes a negative sentiment within society, in particular for victims of bullying and their families. To be exact, victims find it unfair that they are traumatized, often for a long period of time, and have to go through a lot of therapy in order to recover both emotionally and physically, while assailants can simply eliminate records of bullying after they leave school. This record elimination system is in place in order to prevent further stigmatization of assailants in attempts to save their reputation and preserve social acceptance. Although it is true that a “once a bully, always a bully” type of thinking might somewhat make the lives of assailants difficult, it is also relevant that victims’ consent be required before deleting any records related to a bullying incident.

Bullying is really dangerous, but not if our community is ready to fight against it. If our community punishes bullies more strongly and comforts the victims more kindly, bullying will decrease remarkably. There is no shame in sharing about bullying. Together we are stronger!

Call 117 by telephone or ask for help from your SPO (School Police Officer), teacher, or school counselor if you or someone you know experiences bullying while in school.

Let your parents or guardians know what you are going through.

The Authors
Yurok Han is a student of Seokwang Elementary School. He is a 10-year-old Korean. His favorite food is French fries and ice cream. He likes watching TV and baseball, but he does not like playing it. Yurok usually wears big round glasses. His favorite drink is soda.

Hyeonwoo Park is a middle school student who likes to solve the Rubik’s cube. Also, he likes to sleep and enjoys watching action and fantasy movies, too. He does not like to read books, but fiction is an exception. He loves eating food, except for some kinds of seafood such as thornbacks. His favorite fruits are ripe persimmons.