‘School bullying’ searches spike 202% as SA kids return for term three

Searches for “school bullying” spiked as South African pupils returned to class for the third term. Picture: iStock As South African schools reopened for the third term on 21 July, online searches for “school bullying” surged 202% in a single week – a spike researchers say reflects a wave of parental anxiety as children head back into the classroom. New analysis by Teneo Online School of search-trends data shows that interest in “school bullying” stayed flat through the winter break, then climbed sharply from the weekend before the school term restarted, peaking in the days after pupils returned on Tuesday, 21 July.

Searches rose 202% over the week, reaching around 1 000 for the month. Researchers note that the timing is telling: the surge lines up almost exactly with the return to school, suggesting that for many families, a new term brings the question of bullying back to the front of parents’ minds. For a child being bullied, the report notes, the end of a school holiday isn’t simply the end of a break, it can mean the return of a daily ordeal.

The sharp rise in searches as the school term begins suggests many parents are anticipating exactly that, and are looking for guidance before or as their children walk back through the school gates. The concern is well-founded.Researchfrom the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention has found that around four in 10 South African students have experienced some form of cyberbullying during their school careers.Research by Camryn Twaddle and Daniel le Rouxon the prevalence and correlates of cyberbullying among South African adolescents found that 67% of South African teenagers have witnessed cyberbullying even when they weren’t directly targeted, showing its effects reach well beyond the pupils it’s aimed at. Traditional, in-person bullying also remains widespread.

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A nationally representative study of more than 7 000 primary schoolchildren found that between 22% and 33% reported being physically hit by other children, while in some provinces close to four in 10 reported being deliberately excluded by peers. That shift may help explain why the start of term is such a flashpoint: for many children, going back to school also means returning to the environment where online and offline bullying intersect. South African and international research links cyberbullying to serious harm to young people’s mental health, including anxiety, depression and, in the most severe cases, suicidal behaviour, which is why specialists increasingly stress early, open conversation over silence.

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