Bullying - Cyber Style

It used to be that kids would bully each other in the classroom, on the playground, in the cafeteria or on the school bus. However, among today's technologically savvy group of elementary, middle and high school students, the bullying is now in the realm of cyberspace.

According to www.wiresafety.org, 90 percent of middle school students have had their feelings hurt online.

With the pervasiveness of the Internet and texting on cell phones these days, the numbers really should not come as much of a surprise. In fact, the Internet is now like a second reality for many people. Most kids and adults go online at least once a day and the majority of people go online multiple times throughout the day. So, it should only make sense that the same teen problems that exist in the real world, should also follow kids when they log on.

The sad part is that Wire Safety also polled parents about cyber bullying and found that only 15 percent of parents even knew what cyber bullying was.

The problem of course, is for the kids who don't know what they should do or if there is even any recourse for those who bully them online or in text messages considering so few adults even know it is occurring.

More than half (75 percent of students) in the same Wire Safety poll said they have visited a site and said negative things about another student at that site.

Part of the problem is that a lot of people feel less inhibited when they are online than when they are face to face with someone. That is why it is a lot easier for an eighth grader to text "watch your back" or make similar threats over the airwaves than saying it to someone's face.

For parents, this means exercising a greater amount of control over what their kids are doing online but then also raising kids to be aware of what they do online. Teaching teens that their actions have the same consequences online as they do in real life is one way of helping to avoid the cyber bullying problem.

Another possibility would be to utilize parental controls. America Online has these types of controls which monitor how much a user can see online. In addition, if a user is caught bullying someone online or sending threats, AOL usually sends the dialogue to the main user's account and then it's up to parents at that point to reprimand their kids.

Today's parents have to deal with a different set of problems than their parents because of the technology. But luckily there are certain tools that can be used as a deterrent - namely teaching kids self-control and common sense.