Teasing or bullying: Some thoughts

Okay people I promised ya serious last week so today we have it!
Sometimes it can be hard for people especially children to tell when someone is said to be teasing or when it it is they are being bullied. This can in some situations lead to a "Zero tolerance" approach being adopted but that of itself doesn't make it any easier to judge what's what and may not be so effective anyway in teaching people the control we need in our social relationships.
For instance sometimes what we call teasing acts a glue linking us together in much the same way as gossip can help in understand what really is going on.
Personally I see nothing wrong with playful teasing where everyone is in on the joke. But when someone feels humiliated by attacks on their appearance, beliefs and inadequacies, then it's little consolation that the person who is doing the teasing was "only kidding".Having some judgment about who is really being hurt, as opposed to benefiting and maturing by the process is a must.
It's true when something changes in character, by degree, it does become difficult to ascertain precisely when the critical point occurs. On the continuum from 'affectionate teasing' to hateful verbal abuse, mistakes will be made however making things so restrictive in what we may say does reduce depth of our exchanges as well as adding an awkwardness to anything less than entirely affectionate.
For most people from around the age of 10 onward we learn to read more into what people are saying and doing reading faces, tone of voice, posture and so on so we can tell if what they are saying is meant to come over as a joke between us or if they are being deliberately mean.
Actually the absence of this is very visible in forums where great mythunderstandings can easily form! 
Mean certainly has to be dealt with as either parents, teachers or even forum moderators to make sure they understand what they are doing is hurting and maybe make some restitution .
Equally some need to be encouraged to stand up for themselves like the person who frequently get their 'worms' wrong and find others laugh at them for it or picked on because of their background both things we may not be able to change (and when it comes to colour why should any of us?)
It's all about balance I feel.