How is it you imagine social credit scoring will prevent the bullying and murder of schoolkids in China 'by the poor'? Maybe you'd like to introduce it in the US, where innocent children are all safe? Or are US kids all already protected by their parents' credit ratings at the bank? Maybe you'd like to compare the per capita murder rates of children in different societies and social-credit-rate the hell out of everybody.
'CHINESE(?) society is making it difficult for the poor to succeed in life'? - that would be hilariously funny if it were not so tragically blind and backwards - "the species-wide economic system is doing a great job, it's just that we need spies and cops in local areas to control those damn poor bullies...we got to come up with more finely scrutinized and adjusted categories...."SET UP BETTER SURVEILLANCE AND BRING MORE BANDAIDS!!"

I don't necessarily agree that the worst kind of bulliers are the poor who take their general dissatisfaction on others - at least not among juvenile in elementary and high schools.

It is particularly the bulliers from from privileged backgrounds, where the negative social credit toward their parents could be useful.

So now it's those privileged bastards - let's apply it to the privileged global 1% that we create and support and we can end all violence forever.
Uh-huh...who's going to do this now?... Oh yeah! our governments, they're on our side!
Save schoolkids from bullies through nationwide credit ratings - crackpot. Even those who have instigated this scheme for China haven't put that argument forward.

In the past, cases of an adult attacking school kids on mass has been because the perp was lashing out at society. It is often those from underprivileged backgrounds, who feel aggrieved and disenfranchised. Social credit could be a very easy way of making more people feel disenfranchised, than already feel that way.

I still stand behind my previous suggestion, that most bullies in elementary and high school are from better backgrounds than those individuals that they bully.

I'd also add, that in societies like China, bulluying indicates character qualitities that get one further on said societies than they would otherwise get. On average anyway - of course there are extremes who make career criminals or die young.

Also I think that it is obvious that a bully from poor background is more likely to target someone "below" him, from even poorer background.

They use bullying as a step up the social ladder.

Thus if we consider the targets of these bullies, if this does not disenfranchise them already early on and more than they already are, I don't know what does.

Therefore I argue that adressing bullying by social credit system, via the parents of the bulliers, only helps the underprivileged to better start than they now get.

If it isn't obvious, this would be a whip towards the parents to teach their children better - and I'd extend it to teachers.

i went to one rought school and they bullied kids for being 'posh'. i think bullying is about power. those with power showing they have it, usually involves use of physical power. so big rough kids beat up weaker posh kids. big posh kids beat up weaker poor kids. and then you get flashman who bullied any younger person who crossed his path. bullies are not always individual, they often have cronies

Well I'm not teacher in China, so I can only speak for my own past experiences in west. Notably past, because I've seen things changing there in last decade or so.

There the source for bullying in huge majority of cases was popularity (however fake it was). Mantaining it, and acquiring it. Power, as mentioned by Dazzer, was only a tool toward it.

You didn't bully someone who was more popular than you - you bullied someone equal or more often less popular than you, in attempt to become more popular yourself.

Cronies are important in this - the popular individuals have more of them. And getting into such group was considered important.

And from what I have read about the subject, this behaviour has roots in human evolution - even other primates have been shown to practise similar trends.

Many of you are teachers in China - is it really so much different here?

If so, then I'd say that this is not even natural - I'd rather see echos of cultural revolution than biology in it.

you said better backgrounds. is said more powerful. that includes social power/popularity. kids from better monied backgrounds still get a kicking if poverty is norm. in rough scools fighting prowess is more important, in rich backgrounds having the latest iphone. in poor schools the power to liberate the latest iphone from someone else. in primates it is who has the biggest balls, or who can piss higher. not much has changes, just context in your society, be it rich poor or brains, what is valued.

According to my wife - her experience and her brothers' (plural) and sister's experience in their poor rural schools was exceptionally positive. The kids generally got along well together, played together and she can't really remember any incidents of bullying. They're all from the same village - all know each other's families - although occasionally there were inter-family squabbles - but she didn't seem to recall these squabbles affecting the childrens' interpersonal relationships.

As for bullies - they're typically weak and cowardly individuals who rely on oppressing others to hide their own weaknesses and insecurities.

I recall once as a child in more ancient times in an ancient rural elementary school - our teacher conducted a secret vote to point out potential bullies - we had to stand up if identified as a bully. I was utterly shocked to find out someone in my class felt I'd bullied them, as I thought I was friendly to and with everyone. Physically, I was also smaller than most everyone in my class. I'd always made it a point to play fairly with poorer or developmentally slower classmates and encourage inclusiveness so nobody would feel ostracized or "left out"...and yet...somebody felt that I'd bullied them (anonymous vote, so never knew whom I'd offended). Go figure.

As a perpetually smaller kid growing up later in a military brat school - always the target of a diverse population of bullies which was arguably and unfortunately, definitely resolved by a pair of mutual black eyes (his and mine) and mutual suspensions for fighting...but that's a male issue and solution - so can't recommend it for women and especially not for China.

I'm curious as to how expats with children manage or help their children avoid bullying in Chinese and especially Kunming schools. In primary school - my son was exposed to this daily - to include being stabbed in the face with a pencil. As the teachers could not or would not resolve the issue with the other student or his parents - I simply authorized my son to punch the other kid in the face and keep punching, slapping, kicking, scratching, biting etc until the teacher came and separated them...understanding I'd probably be asked to pay any medical costs.

Long story short - I was asked by the bully's parents to pay for his hospital visit, to which I replied, "Sure - right after you compensate me for my son's hospital visit."

End of that story...and then I found out my son then became a school bully - pruned that behavior immediately.

Seems in life - every solution presents a new problem.

The notion that China’s social credit scoring system will somehow eliminate bullying is amusing. Coercing people to behave socially, culturally and economically in accordance with some amorphous acceptable pattern, which can be varied at will, is a form of bullying in and of its self. It is a control tool with interesting possibilities.

And, it seems, it does work.

Besides promoting preferable social behavior the social credit system can be used, more effectively than propaganda, to promote changes in attitude and economic behavior. When coupled with China’s growing non cash economy, consumer decisions can be guided to achieve short terms and long term goals. If there was a shortage of pork the available supply could be rationed by market prices which would rise to lower demand. But as higher prices are unpopular, social stability would be enhanced lowering the social credit score of pork consumers. If banks require more deposits to support more loans then social credit could be used to promote greater savings. People can be motivated to read certain books, vacations to certain destinations, associate with certain foreigners or to avoid foreigners.

Jack Ma's Alibaba, Facebook, Twitter and Google have developed algorithms for analyzing online activities so as to create predictive models of behavior. A social credit score is the feedback loop to drive behavioral change and the monitoring never ends.

Free marketers like me insist central planning can’t work because the planners can never have the quantity and quality of information needed to succeed. While that gap may be narrowing, there is still a big leap from implementing control to effecting central planning.