Tonight we have a dilemma that's a little out of the ordinary, because it comes from one of the youngest members of our audience - Tim is in year 6, he's just 12 years old, and he wants your advice on a problem he's facing at school.

Tim's being bullied, by one of his good friends.
It started a year ago, when a group of kids were picking on Tim, and making fun of him. It all became too much so Tim did something about it. He went and told his teachers that he'd been injured by what they were doing. Now part of the story wasn't true. Tim was certainly upset by their actions, but the actual injury is something he faked. He regrets that he lied, but it's just what he did at the time to try and put an end to the teasing. After Tim dobbed, his friend - let's call him Ricky - got in big trouble with the school principal. As a result, Ricky turned against Tim and started bullying him, and now, a full year later, has still got a big grudge.

Tim doesn't know what to do. He's tried ignoring Ricky's mean comments, but whatever he does, the bullying just continues.

Let's give Tim some second opinions.

• How should Tim respond to the bullying? Is there any steps he can take to try and stop it?

• Should he talk to teachers about it? Keeping in mind that's already turned bad for Tim once.

• What can you do to avoid being a target of bullying in the first place?

• What role can parents play?

• Have you had experience in this area - with your child or even yourself? What did you do that worked? What doesn't work?

• It's interesting that Tim still calls Ricky a friend. He's quite sad that he has lost his friendship... is there any way he can maybe make amends and become friends again?

EXPERTS POINTERS - Wendy Protheroe, General Manager of Kids Help Line.

Tim tried to stop others picking on him by taking action and talking to adult - that was good.
What wasn't good was that he embellished the story and the result was obviously that his friend got into trouble - for something that he didn't do.

It's really good that Tim has owned up to what he did wrong (to us) - but it doesn't sound as though he has told his friend that or told his Principal.  The friend is dealing with his anger, embarrassment and sense of injustice by bullying Tim.  The friend is wrong and needs to be stopped, but Tim is partially to blame for the situation and needs to take his part too.

The really powerful thing to do is to be the first one to take the step to make things better. Tim still calls the other boy his friend so he must want them to still be friends.  If bullies can't get power over you then they often drop off their behaviour. There is no benefit to what they are doing if they aren't intimidating you.

When we see someone as a friend then we want to have good and positive relationships with them. Tim needs to decide how strong he is and take some steps himself to make this better.

He could admit what happened, ask the adult then to help broker a conversation with his friend that can lead to apologies on both sides and the relationship can move forward.  He could ask an adult help him and his mate brainstorm how they can get back to having fun together.

He'll also be demonstrating that he isn't afraid to take the best step in dealing with bullies and that's to tell a safe adult. He's letting his mate know that he isn't afraid and that if it happens again then he is strong enough to go back to the safe adult to help solve the problem

Wow for Tim - forgetting everything else, he knows he did something he wished he hadn't and he is strong enough to put it right before he worries himself sick.  That takes a pretty big man and for bullies, it is very powerful to see someone who isn't afraid to stand up for the truth and take action so that the friendship can get better.

KIDS HELPLINE: 1800 55 1800