Half of US teens are bullies

Half of US teens say they have bullied or teased someone in the last year. And almost half of them say someone has bullied them. These are just two of the findings of the biggest study ever on teen bullying in the US, by an organization called the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

Researchers from the institute interviewed more than 40,000 teens aged 15 to 18 from 100 different schools. They found that about one in three teens thinks violence is a big problem at their school, one in four doesn't feel very safe at school and more than half of teens have hit someone in the past year.

The institute’s founder and president, Michael Josephson, told reporters, “Insults, name calling, teasing and gossip often cause deep and enduring pain. There’s a huge amount of anger out there.”

Many people in the US are working hard to try to stop bullying. Watch a report about a campaign against teen bullying by actress Brittany Snow called Love is Louder: