Television icon Ellen DeGeneres has this week posted an emotional and important video message in response to the recent suicide of Tyler Clementi.

The video which can be found on both her television show’s Facebook fan page and website, calls for the end of bullying, describing the suicides of four American teens in September as a “wake up call”.

“One life lost in this sensless way is tragic. Four lives lost is a crisis,” DeGeneres says.

The eighteen year old and first year university student, Clementi, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River after two students broadcast his sexuality online, posting a video feed of a sexual encounter he had with another man.

Bullying is not a recent issue however the increasing popularization of social media platforms and technology which allows others to invade privacy with ease and broadcast these private insights to the masses creates a social climate unprecedented through history.

It becomes an even greater threat when there are undoubtedly teens and children out there who don’t have a firm idea of what bullying actually is.

I was shocked to discover that even my own brother believes that an act such as teasing or name calling isn’t considered bullying unless the act occurs over consistently over a period of three consecutive days. And he is adamant that a teacher told him that this was the case (which I highly doubt).

Even after explaining that this is not the case, that bullying isn’t such a clear cut formulaic event, he is unwilling to concede. My only hope is that when someone else comes to talk to his class at school (one of my former classmates), that he will be willing to consider the implications and what bullying actually is more seriously.

However not all schools have someone come to explain bullying to their students. Who then do kids turn to, to look up to as role models? It becomes further complicated when even celebrities partake in a form of cyber-bullying, with an increasing number of celebrities getting into hot water over tweets they didn’t put much thought into or vindictively direct towards other celebrities in all out twitter war.

I’m no stranger to the bullying epidemic. I know what it feels like to be victimized, how it was to come home after school (sometimes I didn’t even make it that far before I broke down) and cry.

However it is likely that in my retaliation and anger over being bullied myself that I may have actually been the perpetrator of someone else’s pain. I sincerely hope that this is not the case, however if I ever did make you feel small or unworthy, I apologise with all my heart.

It can become a vicious cycle and children can be so cruel.

If you are being bullied, know someone who is or are a bully yourself and don’t even know it, there are resources and help available. Do not suffer in silence. Speak out and join the fight to bring the world closer to an end of bullying.

– Chani Unger