Heartbreaking anti-bullying experiment will give you hope

As parents, our gorgeous children being bullied is one of our biggest fears. We worry about the powerlessness – sure we’ve reared our children not to listen to bullies, but in practice, systematic bullying can wear down even the most confident child.

So is it any wonder a powerful new anti-bullying video has sucker-punched us in the feels?

UP TV carried out a thought-provoking social experiment on the reactions of bystanders to bullying.

Sitting at a bus stop two young girls make cruel comments to a girl sitting alone.

“I know a bunch of people from your dance team who said that they just pretended to be sick so they wouldn’t have to go to your birthday party,” taunts one of the ‘bullies’.

Instead of keeping quiet and not speaking up, the hidden camera shows impassioned adults getting involved and telling the bullies exactly what they think of them.

“You definitely need makeup,” says one of the bullies.

“No she does not,” says an adult bystander with emotion.

The video is powerful in that we can see the child in these adults – either they were bullied themselves when they were younger and now, finally, they aren’t afraid to speak up, or they’re parents themselves who fear for their own children, or, possibly, they were bullies once too.

The video reiterates that bullying is a vicious circle that lasts a lifetime. The effects of bullying are hard to shake and these adults know that.

'Who will stop the bullying?' finishes the video hopefully. 'All of us.'

All of us.