The Public Security Police (PSP) began this Monday, October 13th, a nationwide operation entitled “Bullying is for the weak” and which aims to raise awareness of the signs and effects that these behaviors have on victims.
Until the 24th, through the Safe School Program Teams (EPES), the PSP will raise awareness among the school community and guardians of this problem, helping to identify behaviors and signs that allow the early detection of victims who are being targeted by these phenomena and promoting their protection and referral to the competent authorities.
In a statement, the PSP warns of signs to watch out for: eating and/or sleep disorders; lack of interest in activities that captivated them; drop in school performance; change of friends; suicide attempts and/or threats.
Special attention should also be paid to the existence of bruises, cuts, scratches; headaches and stomach aches; damaged or missing school supplies; anxiety/depression; aggressiveness/shyness or isolation.
According to the PSP, to help victims one must not discriminate or censor, they must be included in the group’s activities and encourage them to practice activities they enjoy, in addition to promoting self-esteem. Finally, content representing these behaviors should not be shared on the internet.
In the 2024/2025 academic year, the PSP carried out 6,336 awareness-raising actions on bullying e cyberbullying which saw the participation of more than 131,200 students.
Of the 2,791 criminal incidents recorded by the Safe School Program Teams in the last academic year, 130 were related to situations of bullying and 21 are related to situations of cyberbullyingrepresenting a residual decrease compared to the previous academic year. These 151 incidents correspond to 5.4% of the total number of criminal incidents recorded in the last academic year.
The PSP explains that the bullying and the cyberbullying They are not crimes, but rather violent behaviors capable of negatively interfering with the victims’ physical, emotional and psychological growth. To be classified as such, they must meet three cumulative requirements: There must be an imbalance of power between the victim and the aggressor (bullie); tthere is a clear intention, on the part of the aggressor, to cause some type of suffering to the victim; and it has to be a repeated practice over time.
The PSP also warns that cyberbullying, as it occurs in the digital space, causes a series of additional problems compared to the bullyingas “it lasts 24 hours a day, it is indelible and the victim feels that they have nowhere to take refuge, not even for a short period of time”. “This does what the cyberbullying ends up causing even more harmful damage to victims, despite not being carried out in person”, he warns.