School bullying raises concern in Sweden

Bullying remains constant in Swedish schools, where about 8 percent of students are subjected to the abuse, figures published on Wednesday showed.

Over half of the 60,000 victims, aged 9 to 15, said they had suffered the treatment for longer than four months in a survey by the anti-bullying charity Friends.

"A dark picture is painted, and we wish we could write that bullying is decreasing and headed in the right direction," the charity and representatives of a teachers' union wrote in the pages of daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

The authors said bullying levels have remained constant for 20 years and suggested that teacher training and a 650-million-SEK (75.9 million U.S. dollars) government bid to raise awareness among school staff could change the situation.

The survey, completed by some 15,000 children online, showed that malicious comments was the most common form of bullying, followed by ostracism and physical harm.

The Internet was the third-most common bullying venue, after school toilets and locker rooms.

One in five victims said they had refrained from telling anyone else about the abuse. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.57 SEK) Endit