Bullying in the Netherlands: school duties and your rights

In the Netherlands, bullying is not a criminal offence in itself, but many acts that make up bullying are, and schools and employers have a legal duty to act against it. Since the Social Safety at School Act (Wet veiligheid op school) came into force in 2015, primary and secondary schools must pursue an active anti-bullying policy and appoint a point of contact for bullying.

Bullying is a repeated pattern of behaviour in which one person or a group deliberately harms another, sustained by an imbalance of power. Assault, threats, defamation and stalking are criminal offences whoever commits them. A school or employer that fails to act on signals it knew or should have known about can be liable for damages. Below we explain what bullying looks like, what schools must do, how you report it and when the police or a court can step in.

What counts as bullying?

Bullying is harmful behaviour that is intentional, repeated and based on an imbalance of power. That is what separates it from an ordinary conflict between equals.

A disagreement, even a heated one, is part of everyday life. Bullying is different: one side has more power, whether through physical strength, social status or access to embarrassing information, and uses that advantage to harm someone who cannot easily defend themselves. Each taunt or rumour may seem small, but together they wear down a person’s confidence and sense of safety.

Three elements are usually present:

• Intentional harm. The behaviour is meant to cause physical or emotional pain, through words, actions or exclusion.
• An imbalance of power. The target feels unable to defend themselves.
• Repetition. It is not a one-off, but a pattern over time.

Bullying is not limited to children at school. It also happens at work, in sports clubs, in associations and online. The setting changes, but the dynamics of power and control remain the same. Which rules apply, however, depends on the setting: a school, an employer and a sports club each have their own obligations.

Which forms of bullying are there?

Bullying can be physical, verbal, social or online. Some forms leave visible marks; others cause harm that is harder to see but just as real.

Physical bullying

This is the most visible form: shoving and tripping someone in the corridor, hitting, kicking, or damaging or stealing belongings such as a bag or phone. The emotional toll of constant fear can be as serious as the physical harm. A child who is regularly pushed around on the way home may start avoiding school altogether.

Verbal and social bullying

Verbal bullying uses words to demean: persistent name-calling, insults about appearance or intelligence and threats of violence. It often leaves no physical evidence, which makes it harder to prove. Keeping a record of what was said, when and in front of whom helps.

Social bullying is subtler. It aims to damage someone’s standing in a group: spreading false rumours, encouraging others to ignore a person or embarrassing them in public. Because it attacks the basic need to belong, it can be deeply painful, even if no single act seems serious on its own.

Online bullying

Online bullying, or cyberbullying, takes verbal and social bullying into digital spaces. It can follow a child home and continue day and night. A single humiliating post or image can be shared endlessly and remain visible for years, which makes escape and recovery difficult.

For schools, clear rules on the use of phones and social media are part of an effective safety policy. Dutch schools must also pay attention to online conduct in their teaching. For victims, the first practical step is to preserve evidence: screenshots of messages, posts and profiles, with dates.

What about bullying based on background or religion?

Bullying that targets someone’s ethnicity, skin colour, culture or religion is also discrimination. It attacks a person’s identity and can be a criminal offence in its own right.

Discriminatory bullying can be overt: racial slurs, derogatory jokes about someone’s culture, mocking an accent or intimidation driven by prejudice. It can also be covert: assumptions based on stereotypes, or a pupil who is consistently left out of group activities because of their background. Small incidents build up and leave a child feeling like a permanent outsider.

Schools have a specific responsibility here. The school’s participation council (medezeggenschapsraad) must monitor non-discrimination and equal treatment at the school. Teachers and school leaders need to recognise subtle forms of discrimination and respond to them, rather than dismissing them as a disagreement between pupils. A response that downplays the incident, or implicitly blames the victim, leaves the pupil more isolated.

Outside school, you can report discrimination to a local anti-discrimination service (antidiscriminatievoorziening), which every municipality must make available. Adults who face comparable behaviour at work can read more about transgressive behaviour in the workplace and the employer’s obligations.

What must a Dutch school do against bullying?

Every primary and secondary school must have a social safety policy that includes an anti-bullying approach, and it must check whether that policy works. The school must also appoint a point of contact for bullying.

These duties follow from the Social Safety at School Act, which amended the Primary Education Act (Wet op het primair onderwijs) and the Secondary Education Act (now the Wet voortgezet onderwijs 2020) with effect from 1 August 2015. In summary, a school must:

• pursue a social safety policy, including measures against bullying, online and offline;
• monitor how safe pupils actually feel, on a regular basis;
• appoint a point of contact for bullying (aanspreekpunt pesten), to whom pupils and parents can turn, and a person who coordinates the anti-bullying policy;
• have a complaints procedure and be affiliated to a complaints committee.

The central government’s page on the approach to bullying at school (in Dutch) describes these obligations. Schools must also discuss social safety, shared norms and online conduct with their pupils. The school cannot adopt or change its safety policy without the involvement of the participation council.

The Inspectorate of Education (Inspectie van het Onderwijs) supervises whether schools meet these obligations. It does not decide individual bullying disputes, but it can act against a school that structurally falls short.

How do you report bullying at school?

Start inside the school: the teacher or mentor, then the point of contact for bullying, then the school board. If that does not help, you can file a formal complaint with the complaints committee and inform the Inspectorate.

The table below shows the usual order.

Following these steps in order creates a clear record of your efforts and gives the school a fair chance to solve the problem at each stage.

The first steps within the school

Ask for a meeting with your child’s teacher or mentor, and come prepared. Write down dates, times, specific incidents and who was involved, and present the facts calmly. The aim is a joint plan: what will the school do, who is responsible and when will you meet again?

Confirm the agreements in a short email afterwards. If the bullying continues or you feel you are not being taken seriously, contact the point of contact for bullying or the school’s confidential adviser. That person can explain the school’s anti-bullying protocol and make sure it is followed.

When to escalate beyond the school

If internal steps do not stop the bullying, address the school board in writing. Describe what happened, what was agreed and what did not happen, and ask for specific measures within a reasonable period.

You can also file a formal complaint with the complaints committee to which the school is affiliated. Its details are in the school’s complaints procedure, usually published in the school guide. The committee assesses the complaint and advises the board.

The Inspectorate of Education has confidential inspectors (vertrouwensinspecteurs) whom you can contact about serious incidents, such as physical or psychological violence, discrimination or sexual harassment. They advise and can help you find the right route, but they do not take over the handling of your individual case.

When does bullying become a criminal offence?

When the behaviour meets the definition of an offence in the Dutch Criminal Code (Wetboek van Strafrecht, Sr). Bullying as such is not an offence, but many of its components are.

The following acts can be reported to the police (aangifte doen):

• Assault (mishandeling, Article 300 Sr). Deliberately causing someone pain or injury, from a hard shove to hitting. Injury is not required; pain is enough. Our article on assault charges in the Netherlands explains this offence in more detail.
• Threats (bedreiging, Article 285 Sr). Threatening someone with, for example, public violence, serious assault or killing.
• Insult, defamation and slander (belediging, smaad and laster, Articles 261, 262 and 266 Sr). Deliberately damaging someone’s honour or reputation, for instance by spreading false accusations.
• Stalking (belaging, Article 285b Sr). Systematically and unlawfully intruding on someone’s privacy to force them to act or to frighten them.
• Discriminatory insult (Article 137c Sr). Publicly insulting a group of people because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
• Sharing sexual images without consent (Article 139h Sr) and doxing (Article 285d Sr), the publication of personal data to intimidate someone.

Some of these offences are prosecuted only if the victim files a complaint (klacht). That applies to insult, defamation and slander (Article 269 Sr) and to stalking. For a child under 16, a parent or guardian can file the complaint. Simple assault and threats do not require a complaint.

Age matters too. Children under 12 cannot be prosecuted (Article 486 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Sv). For young people between 12 and 18, juvenile criminal law applies, with an emphasis on education and correction. The police can still record the report and involve youth care or the school.

A criminal investigation runs separately from anything the school does. Where the bullying takes the form of persistent following, messages or unwanted contact, our article on how to handle stalking legally and effectively sets out the options, including a restraining order.

Can you claim damages?

Yes, if the bullying is an unlawful act. You can claim from the person responsible and, in some cases, from the school, the employer or the parents of a young child.

Under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW), anyone who commits an unlawful act against another person must compensate the damage. That includes financial damage, such as the costs of therapy or a change of school, and in some cases non-material damage for mental harm. For children under 14, parents are liable for the child’s unlawful behaviour under Article 6:169 BW.

A school can be liable if it failed in its duty of care: it knew or should have known about the bullying and did not take reasonable measures. Such claims require careful evidence. Your record of reports, emails and agreements with the school is essential. A court will look at what the school knew, when it knew it and what it did.

What about bullying at work?

Employers must protect employees against bullying. Under Article 3(2) of the Working Conditions Act (Arbeidsomstandighedenwet), they must have a policy to prevent or limit psychosocial workload, which expressly includes bullying, aggression, discrimination and sexual harassment.

In practice that means a risk assessment, a code of conduct, a confidential adviser and a complaints procedure. If an employee suffers damage because the employer did not take adequate measures, the employer can be liable under Article 7:658 BW or the general duty to be a good employer (Article 7:611 BW). An employee who is bullied should report it in writing to a manager or HR, keep a record of incidents and, where needed, contact the company doctor.

How can you support a child who is being bullied?

Listen first and take the story seriously. Then write down what happened and involve the school, so that your child does not have to solve it alone.

Children often hesitate to talk about bullying, out of shame or fear that telling an adult will make things worse. Signs can include reluctance to go to school, unexplained injuries or damaged belongings, changes in sleep or appetite and withdrawal from friends. If you notice such signs, ask open questions and listen without judgement.

Agree with your child what you will do, and explain why you are involving the school. Help your child save messages and images rather than deleting them, and consider blocking or reporting accounts on the platform concerned. If the bullying affects your child’s wellbeing seriously, involve the family doctor or the school’s care coordinator. Children can also talk anonymously to De Kindertelefoon.

What if your child is accused of bullying?

Take the signal seriously and listen to the school’s account before drawing conclusions. The school must act against bullying, but it must also treat the pupil concerned fairly.

Ask the school for the specific incidents it relies on and for its plan. Talk to your child about what happened and why. Measures such as a conversation, a behaviour plan or supervision are usually aimed at stopping the behaviour, not at punishment. More serious measures, such as a suspension or expulsion, are subject to rules and procedures, and you can object to them or file a complaint. If the police are involved, your child has the right to legal assistance during a police interview.

How does it work in practice?

Most cases are resolved within the school or workplace, provided the problem is reported early and the facts are well documented. The law becomes relevant when the organisation does not act.

Take a parent whose child is excluded and mocked online by classmates for several months. The parent keeps a log, saves screenshots and meets the mentor. The school draws up a plan, but the bullying continues. The parent then writes to the school board, files a complaint with the complaints committee and, because intimate images have been shared, reports the matter to the police. Each step builds on the documentation of the previous one.

What makes a difference is timing and evidence. The sooner a school is formally informed, the harder it is to argue later that it did not know. And the more specific the record, the easier it is for the school, the police or a court to act.

Deadlines and next steps

There is no single deadline, but acting early helps. The school’s complaints procedure may set a period within which a complaint must be filed, so check it.

For criminal complaints, the time limit is three months for offences that are prosecuted only on complaint (Article 66 Sr); the period runs from the moment the person entitled to complain knew of the offence. For civil claims, a claim for damages in principle becomes time-barred five years after you became aware of the damage and the person responsible (Article 3:310 BW). If you are considering legal steps, keep all evidence and seek advice in good time.

In summary

• Bullying is intentional, repeated and based on an imbalance of power; it is not an offence in itself, but acts such as assault, threats and defamation are.
• Since 2015, Dutch schools must pursue an anti-bullying policy, monitor pupils’ safety and appoint a point of contact for bullying.
• Report inside the school first, in writing, then escalate to the school board, the complaints committee and, where needed, the Inspectorate.
• Defamation and stalking are prosecuted only on complaint, within three months; assault and threats are not complaint offences.
• Schools and employers that fail to act on known bullying can be liable for damages.

Frequently asked questions

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