Bullying destroys: 68.5% of 11-19 year olds have experienced offensive, aggressive, defamatory incidents

"Preventive education is needed in schools, a long process of inclusion that must be built between the family and the school. If the discomfort is recognised, it can be tackled in the best possible way. After the success of the film, and despite the emotional fatigue, I want to continue my tours in Italian schools. Many young people have recognised themselves in the images of the film'. This was said by Teresa Manes, the mother of the 'Boy with the Pink Trousers', Andrea Spezzacatena - the 15-year-old Roman boy who took his own life on 20 November 2012 after being the victim of insults and humiliation - speaking via video link-up during the press conference for the presentation, at the Sistina Theatre in Rome, of the musical 'The Boy with the Pink Trousers' directed by Massimo Romeo Piparo.

'Bullying,' recalls Teresa Manes, 'changes your life, destroys you, creates immense suffering. It is a phenomenon to be curbed, multiform. It is also often linked to prejudice that stems from adult indifference and language. Language,' Teresa Manes continues, 'is the first form of violence'. 7 February is the 'National Day against Bullying and Cyberbullying', established in 2017, on the initiative of the Miur (Ministry of Education, University and Research), to combat an emergency that mainly concerns adolescents and pre-adolescents and that affects, in particular, individuals considered weak or 'different'.

According to the survey 'Children and young people: behaviour, attitudes and future plans', presented by ISTAT last June, 68.5% of 11-19 year-olds have experienced some offensive, aggressive, defamatory or exclusionary incident, either online or offline. 21% of them were victims of similar behaviour several times a month, while for about 8% the frequency was at least weekly. Males more than females ('!' 20.5% vs. 20.5%). The survey involved a sample of 39,214 young people, representative of the 5.140 million young people aged between 11 and 19 years resident in Italia. Bullying affected 22.1% of young people in the North-East, 21.6% in the North-West and 21% in the Centre, 20% in the South.

According to the report, more than 14% of 11-19 year olds have been offended and insulted several times a month and one in 10 young people have been victims of exclusion even more frequently. For boys bullying manifests itself mainly through offence and insults (16% compared to 12.3% for girls), the impact of exclusion for girls is more than 12% (compared to 8.5% for boys).

Romanians and Ukrainians are the most bullied. 26.8% of foreign children declare having been subjected to abusive, disrespectful and/or violent behaviour more than once a month in the last year, compared to 20.4% of their Italian peers. Among some foreign communities the phenomenon is more pronounced: boys of Romanian and Ukrainian nationality are more frequently victims of bullying, 29.2% and 27.8% respectively.