Belsey is the creator of two anti-bullying websites, cyberbulling.ca and bullying.org, and is also the president of bullying.org Canada Inc. Over the past 10 years, he was one of the driving forces bringing both bullying and cyberbullying to the attention of society, and speaks all around the world on the topic.
Why he wanted to do something
Belsey was a teacher at the time of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Barely a week after the shooting there was a copycat shooting in a nearby school in his home province of Alberta, and both events had a profound impact on him.
“After that happened, I realized I needed to do something.”
Belsey created bullying.org in response, which is ranked the number one website about bullying on the web. He said part of the success comes from posting real stories from people who were bullied. One of the things that he said may surprise the audience are the number of people who have been bullied.
To prove his point, he asked the audience three questions:
How many of you have done something in your life that could be considered bullying?
“I think most young people are pretty great, most of the time. “There are so many wonderful things you can do with technology. Who wants to waste time hurting someone with some petty comment online?” - Bill Belsey
How many of you may have been bullied by someone else?
How many of you know someone who has been bullied?
Nearly the entire room kept their hands up for all three questions, and Belsey said he sees the same response all over the world.
“Keep that in your mind, because if anyone ever tells you bullying isn’t a big deal, imagine everyone in the whole world with their hand up.”
