Chapter 8
Bullying and the law
As bullying became more visible, another question followed:
When does bullying become a matter for the law?
There is no single UK criminal offence called bullying. In England, government guidance continues to say that some forms of bullying may be illegal, including violence, theft, repeated harassment or intimidation and hate crime, while schools also have legal duties to prevent bullying.
That distinction is important.
Calling something bullying does not automatically make it a crime. Equally, deciding that something does not meet a particular definition of bullying does not mean that the behaviour is lawful.
The law was already there
Long before governments began creating detailed anti-bullying frameworks, existing laws could apply to behaviour taking place within bullying.
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 provided protection against courses of conduct amounting to harassment. The Malicious Communications Act 1988 and Communications Act 2003 later became particularly significant as phones, email, text messages and online communication changed how threats and harmful communications could be sent.
The law has continued to change. The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new offences covering false communications and threatening communications which came into force on 31 January 2024. Some earlier communications offences were repealed or replaced as part of those changes.
The terminology changes, but the underlying point remains:
The law may respond to what somebody does, even when the law does not call it bullying.
Schools acquire explicit responsibilities
The law was also changing inside education.
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 introduced an explicit requirement for school discipline measures to include preventing all forms of bullying among pupils, with the relevant provision coming into force in 1999. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 continued and developed that approach, requiring relevant schools to have behaviour measures aimed at encouraging good behaviour and respect for others and, specifically, preventing all forms of bullying.
Today in England, all state schools must have a behaviour policy containing measures to prevent all forms of bullying.
This represented an important historical change.
Bullying was no longer something a school could reasonably regard simply as an unfortunate part of growing up.
Schools had clear responsibilities to prevent and respond to it.
Discrimination changes the picture again
The law also became increasingly important where bullying overlapped with prejudice and discrimination.
The Equality Act 2010 brought much existing discrimination legislation together. Schools have responsibilities connected with discrimination, harassment and victimisation, meaning that behaviour connected with characteristics such as disability, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation may sit within more than one legal and policy framework.
This complicates the apparently simple question:
“Is it bullying?”
A racist insult, disability related humiliation or homophobic behaviour may be described as bullying, but other legal responsibilities may also apply.
More than one description can fit the same behaviour.
The four UK nations do not all take the same approach
Even within the UK there is no single legal model.
England relies heavily on statutory duties around behaviour, safeguarding and equality without having a statutory definition of bullying for schools.
Wales also places duties on schools within education, safeguarding and equality law, alongside detailed national guidance on bullying and harassment. Current requirements include measures intended to prevent bullying, while schools develop the practical definitions and policies used within their own settings.
Scotland has developed its national anti-bullying approach within a broader framework of education, equality, children's rights and safeguarding rather than through one stand alone anti-bullying statute.
Northern Ireland went further.
The Addressing Bullying in Schools Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 provides a statutory definition of bullying for schools. It also requires schools to record bullying incidents, their motivation and outcomes, and places responsibility on Boards of Governors for developing, implementing, monitoring and periodically reviewing anti-bullying policies. The Act came into operation on 1 September 2021.
The UK therefore provides an interesting example of the very problem explored elsewhere on this site.
We cannot even assume that bullying is defined or regulated in exactly the same way across four neighbouring education systems.
When bullying entered the law around the world
There was no single moment when governments around the world decided to legislate against bullying.
Different jurisdictions have taken very different routes. Some imposed duties on schools, some gave pupils legal rights, some required anti-bullying policies, some created statutory definitions and a few went further by creating specific offences.
The examples below are therefore a selected timeline, not a ranking or complete international history.
1998: England and Wales
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 placed preventing bullying explicitly within school behaviour responsibilities, with the provision coming into force in 1999.
1999: Georgia, United States
Georgia enacted one of the earliest US state laws specifically addressing bullying in schools in 1999. Its legislation has been amended repeatedly since then as definitions, technology and requirements have developed.
The United States subsequently developed a patchwork of state laws rather than one single national school bullying law.
2002 and 2003: Norway
Norway strengthened pupils' legal rights to a good physical and psychosocial school environment through amendments to its Education Act. The new school environment provisions took effect in April 2003 and explicitly included concerns such as bullying, discrimination, violence and racism.
This was a slightly different legal idea.
Rather than concentrating only on punishing individual behaviour, the law emphasised a pupil's right to an environment in which they could learn safely.
2004: South Korea
South Korea's Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools came into force in July 2004.
The legislation treats bullying within the broader concept of school violence and established formal structures and possible responses to harmful behaviour within schools. The legislation has continued to develop through later amendments.
This is another reminder that even the legal category differs between cultures.
What one country calls bullying, another may place within school violence.
2013: Japan
Japan's Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying came into force in September 2013.
The Act defines bullying, including behaviour carried out through the internet, and establishes responsibilities for national and local government, schools, teachers and guardians. Schools are expected to develop their own policies, work to detect bullying early and respond when bullying is suspected.
2013: Philippines
The Philippines passed the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013, Republic Act No. 10627.
It requires elementary and secondary schools to adopt and regularly update anti-bullying policies. The legislation includes reporting and investigation procedures, protection against retaliation, education for pupils and parents, cyberbullying and support for both those experiencing bullying and those carrying it out.
There is an interesting connection here with something we have argued elsewhere on the site.
The law does not simply say that a school should possess a policy.
It expects that policy to be regularly updated.
2014: Gibraltar
Gibraltar took an unusual route outside the school environment.
The Employment (Bullying at Work) Act 2014 came into force on 18 September 2014 and created a specific statutory framework addressing workplace bullying and victimisation.
Employers are required to have a written Bullying at Work Policy, with procedures covering complaints, investigation and organisational responses.
This is particularly interesting when compared with England and Wales, where workplace bullying is generally addressed through other areas of employment, discrimination, harassment and health and safety law rather than a statute specifically called a Bullying at Work Act.
2016: Northern Ireland
The Addressing Bullying in Schools Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 put a school definition of bullying into statute and established responsibilities for recording incidents and reviewing anti-bullying policy.
The legislation came into operation in September 2021.
Northern Ireland therefore became an interesting contrast with England within the UK itself.
One jurisdiction had put a definition into legislation.
The other had not.
2022: France
France went further again with Law No. 2022-299 of 2 March 2022 aimed at combating school harassment.
The legislation strengthened prevention, support and training and created a specific offence of school harassment within the Penal Code. It also applied the legal framework across school and higher education contexts.
By this stage, we have travelled a considerable distance from the nineteenth century idea that rough treatment might simply be something a young person was expected to endure.
In France, school bullying had become something sufficiently distinct to be named within criminal law.
The same problem, very different laws
Looking across this selected timeline reveals no single legal model.
England placed duties on schools. Norway strengthened the right to a safe school environment. South Korea incorporated bullying into school violence legislation. Japan created national anti-bullying legislation. The Philippines required schools to adopt and regularly update policies. Gibraltar created specific workplace bullying legislation. Northern Ireland placed a school definition into statute. France created a specific criminal offence.
The same underlying problem has produced very different legal responses.
That leads back to a question from What is Bullying?
If countries cannot agree on one definition of bullying, how likely are they to agree on one legal response?
A situation to think about
Imagine a fourteen year old who has been receiving insulting messages from several pupils.
Some messages are sent privately and others appear in a group chat. It has been happening for several weeks, and one evening another message arrives threatening serious physical harm.
The young person's parent reports everything to the school.
The school begins dealing with it as bullying.
But is that the whole story?
Could some of the behaviour also amount to harassment? Could the threat potentially become a criminal matter? Does it matter that some messages were sent away from school and outside school hours? What responsibilities does the school still have, and at what point might another organisation such as the police need to become involved?
There is no need to choose only one label.
The same situation can involve bullying, safeguarding, school discipline and potentially the law at the same time.
If you think the law may be involved
For a parent or young person, deciding whether something has crossed from bullying into a possible legal matter can be difficult. You do not necessarily need to know which law might apply before asking for help.
For school related bullying, one possible starting point is the school's behaviour or anti-bullying policy and its complaints procedure. Keeping a simple record of what has happened, when it happened, what was reported and what response followed can also help if concerns continue or need to be taken further. In England, government guidance says that schools can deal with bullying themselves, while behaviour involving a possible crime can also be reported to the police. Complaints about how a school has responded normally begin through the school's own complaints process.
Where messages, posts or other digital material are involved, keeping copies can sometimes help show what has happened. However, somebody does not need to assemble a complete evidence file before contacting the police. Police guidance on threatening messages specifically says that people can report what happened without first collecting screenshots, photographs or other evidence.
Reporting something does not automatically mean that somebody will be arrested or prosecuted. The police may need to decide whether a criminal offence may have occurred, what evidence is available and what response is appropriate. At the same time, a school's responsibility to address bullying or safeguard a pupil does not necessarily disappear simply because the police are involved.
For some families, the most useful question may therefore be less “Can I prove this is bullying?” and more:
What has happened, what outcome are we trying to achieve, and which route might help us get there?
That might involve the school, its formal complaints procedure, safeguarding services, the police, specialist support or legal advice. The appropriate route will depend on what has happened and where in the UK it has happened.
If somebody is in immediate danger, the response is different. Emergency help should be sought straight away.
The law does not answer everything
Law matters because it establishes responsibilities, boundaries and protections.
But law cannot answer every question that arises when bullying happens.
Behaviour does not have to reach the threshold for criminal prosecution before a school should take it seriously. Nor should a child have to wait until something becomes illegal before adults decide that it needs to stop.
And prosecution may not be what the person experiencing bullying wants.
They may still be asking for something much simpler:
Can you make it stop?
The law can be part of the response.
It is not the whole response.
By this point in the history, schools had legal responsibilities, governments had guidance, legislation had expanded and specialist organisations had developed considerable expertise.
But another problem remained:
Who was preparing teachers to deal with all of this?