The Daily Post has launched a campaign to take a stand against bullying in our city. Stop The Hate has been running for the last few weeks, looking at bullying, bullies and their victims. Today, we look at the types of bullying people notice in our Rotorua community.
If you ask the youth of today, Facebook seems to be where just about all bullying starts.
It's where people find the courage to say things to others, often abusive things, that they wouldn't normally say to their face. Young people argue, call each other slanderous names and make threats.
From there, the bullying can be taken further.
The Daily Post spoke to six youths - four teenaged girls and two young men - who shared their own experiences of bullying in the community. They talked about what they've seen, how people act and how they have, at times, reacted.
The two young men, Sinclair Roger, 21, and Aubrey Khan, 19, admitted they were bullies when they were younger.
They said they showed bullying behaviour from the time they were at primary school.
"I was a bully," Sinclair said.
He told The Daily Post he used to intimidate his peers and get items such as cellphones, lunches, money and more from his victims.
"I used to pick on kids for their money and their lunch, not only that, I'd push in lines."
Aubrey did the same but he would also get his peers to do his homework.
The pair said they had become bullies by following in the footsteps of older students at school and "hanging with the wrong crowd".
However, they had since changed their ways.
They said between the ages of 16 and 18 they had realised what they were doing wasn't good and had wanted to grow up.
Now, when they see a bully picking on someone they try to step in and tell the person to stop.
They believe the main reason bullies hurt people is because they're trying to act cool but say there is no reason for anyone to hurt others.
"A lot of young guys think they're tough, acting all cool," Aubrey said.
They say if people are feeling bullied they should speak up and seek help.
Online, Aubrey and Sinclair see bullying happening all the time.
They say people call each other names and threaten others on a daily basis, particularly on social networking website Facebook.
In fact, Facebook is where just about all Rotorua's bullying stems from when it comes to youth bullying, say four Rotorua teenage girls who spoke to The Daily Post.
The teens only wanted to be identified by their first names - Aroha, 15, Yasmin, 14, Toni, 16, and Kerehi, 16.
"There's so much bullying on Facebook, I see it. People take the piss out of people," Aroha said.
"This one person in particular, he gets bullied because he tries too hard for girls so people bully him," she said.
Yasmin and Toni said girls who hung out with guys, made comments to guys on Facebook or shared photos of guys on Facebook pages were often targeted by other girls.
"They could be jealous," Aroha said.
"People actually go out of their way to make [victims] feel bad," Toni said.
They believed Facebook, texting and parties were the main starting points for bullying.
"It usually starts from Facebook."
Yasmin said girls were often very judgmental, especially when it came to what other girls were wearing. Girls would gossip about other girls' outfits and call them "sluts".
She said sometimes girls would constantly walk past another girl, calling her names each time.
Other times girls would comment to each other on Facebook about what other people were wearing.
"It's pathetic," Yasmin said.
Aroha said once someone was bullied on Facebook, victims were then targeted at schools and in the community with stares, threats and name-calling. Sometimes it also turned physical.
Yasmin said sometimes things could get turned around on a Facebook bully.
She said it was common for someone to act tough on Facebook and then be beaten up by the person they were bullying or their friends.
"Facebook is the main cause," Toni said.
At school, Aroha said she had seen different groups of friends, or "clicks" as they were better known, teased and bullied.
"Emos get judged because of how they look and how they act and what they do," Aroha said.
"Everybody gets judged, definitely," Toni said.
The beginning of the school year was a time when fights regularly happened.
"At the start it's people trying to find their place, at the end it's kind of a 'I'm not going to see you again so I'm going to hit you'," she said.
Kerehi said it was also common for bullies to target students during mufti days at school.
"People are judgmental.
"If someone has not-so-cool clothes everybody picks on them."
The girls also told The Daily Post they tried to make sure they were extra-friendly to the more angry and intimidating girls for fear of getting on the wrong side of them and becoming a target and getting beaten up.
They were unsure what could stop bullying but believed it shouldn't happen in the community.
If you want to share a story about bullying, email kristin.macfarlane@dailypost.co.nz or contact her on (07) 348 6199, extension 57072.