What is cyberbullying, exactly?
Mobile phones and the internet are great – young people can stay in touch with mates, chat to new friends, and have fun with cool ringtones, photos and video clips. But bullies can use these modern communcation methods too.

"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones i.e. texting. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying.

It isn't when adult are trying to lure children into offline meetings, that is called sexual exploitation or luring by a sexual predator. But sometimes when a minor starts a cyberbullying campaign it involves sexual predators who are intrigued by the sexual harassment or even ads posted by the cyberbullying offering up the victim for sex.

The methods used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology. And the cyberbully one moment may become the victim the next. The kids often change roles, going from victim to bully and back again.

Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident. Why do kids cyberbully? more..

Cyberbullying is usually not a one time communication, unless it involves a death threat or a credible threat of serious bodily harm. Kids usually know it when they see it, while parents may be more worried about the lewd language used by the kids than the hurtful effect of rude and embarrassing posts.

Cyberbullying may arise to the level of a misdemeanor cyberharassment charge, or if the child is young enough may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of the time the cyberbullying does not go that far, although parents often try and pursue criminal charges. It typically can result in a child losing their ISP or IM accounts as a terms of service violation. And in some cases, if hacking or password and identity theft is involved, can be a serious criminal matter under state and federal law.

When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right. They also, often lose. Schools can be very effective brokers in working with the parents to stop and remedy cyberbullying situations. They can also educate the students on cyberethics and the law. If schools are creative, they can sometimes avoid the claim that their actions exceeded their legal authority for off-campus cyberbullying actions. We recommend that a provision is added to the school's acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well-being of student while in school. This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue.

Wootton Bassett School are keen to ensure children are aware of cyber-bullying. The school do not legally have access to the sites which utilise theses modern communication methods within school premises. But they are very concerned that parents should be made aware of the growing problems and work together to ensure the children do not become the victim or the offender.

What is cyber-bullying?
"Cyber-bullying" which now affects as many as one in five youngsters. There are two kinds of cyberbullying:

Direct attacks: These are the messages sent to your kids directly, i.e. I hate you!, Your fat and ugly! Kids may send hateful or threatening messages to other kids, without realising that while not said in real life, unkind or threatening messages are hurtful and very serious.

These offenders are invariably 'very weak' in themselves, they often fire insults from behind a screen and think it is fun to offensively hurt the fellings of others. Text wars or text attacks are when kids gang up on the victim, sending thousands of text-messages to the victims cell phone or other mobile device. The victim is then faced with a huge cell phone bill and angry parents.

A kid may steal another child's password and begin to chat with other people, pretending to be the other kid. He/she may say mean things that offend and anger this person's friends or even strangers. Meanwhile, they won't know it is not really that person they are talking to. A kid may also use another kid's password to change his/her profile to include sexual, racist, and inappropriate things that may attract unwanted attention or offend people.

Children used to tease each other in the playground; now they do it on Web sites. Kids sometimes create Web sites that may insult or endanger another child. They create pages specifically designed to insult another kid or group of people. Kids also post other kids' personal information and pictures, which put those people at a greater risk of being contacted or found.

Posing as the victim, the cyberbully can do considerable damage . They may post a provocative message in a hate group's chatroom posing as the victim, inviting an attack against the victim, often giving the name, address and telephone number of the victim to make the hate group's job easier. They often also send a message to someone posing as the victim, saying hateful or threatening things while masquerading as the victim. They may also alter a message really from the victim, making it appear that they have said nasty things or shared secrets with others.

Proxy Attacks: These are carried out by cyberbullies by proxy in other words using others to help cyberbully the victim, either with or without the accomplice's knowledge. "Lets all vote for the fattest kid at school. If you think xxxxx is ugly vote her!".

Cyberbullying by proxy sometimes starts with the cyberbully posing as the victim. They may have hacked into their account or stolen their password. They may have set up a new account pretending to be the victim. But however they do it, they are pretending to be the victim and trying to create problems for the victim with the help of others.

The most typical way a cyberbullying by proxy attack occurs is when the cyberbully gets control of the victim's account and sends out hateful or rude messages to everyone on their buddy list pretending to be the victim. They may also change the victim's password so they can't get into their own account. The victim's friends get angry with the victim, thinking they had sent the messages without knowing they have been used by the cyberbully. But it's not always this minor. Sometimes the cyberbully tries to get more people involved.

Preventing cyberbullying
Educating the kids about the consequences (losing their internet accounts) How can you stop it once it starts? Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand school playground bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart.

Parents need to be the one trusted place kids can go when things go wrong online and offline. Yet they often are the one place kids avoid when things go wrong online. Why? Parents tend to overreact. Most children will avoid telling their parents about a cyberbullying incident fearing they will only make things worse. (Calling the other parents, the school, blaming the victim or taking away Internet privileges.) Unfortunately, they also sometimes under react, and rarely get it "just right."

Parents need to be supportive of your child during this time. You may be tempted to give the "stick and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you" lecture, but words and cyberattacks can wound a child easily and have a lasting effect.

Let the school know so the guidance counsellor can keep an eye out for in-school bullying and for how your child is handling things. It is crucial that you are there to provide the necessary support and love. Make them feel secure. Children have committed suicide after having been cyberbullied, and in Japan one young girl killed another after a cyberbullying incident. Take it seriously.

And it does happen:
My 12 year old was a victim of Cyber Bullying.
I think parents should be made aware of my space on M.S.N. This is where I found a lot of bullying took place All they had to idenify them was an I.D number. Not by their M.S.N. address.

When I reported the abuse M.S.N. said they were unable to identify those concerned and take action against them. I wanted the one who paid as the provider informed of what was happening and action taken against them. What these 12 year old girls put on were obscene and abusive.

Eventually after hours of being on M.S.N. I managed to identify those concerned. I sent E-mails to all concerned. However it is worrying that a company that is worth millions cannot invest more in preventing this abuse and when it does occur to take action.
Mrs G.
Wiltshire

Bullying by email is only the tip of the iceberg. Hardly a day goes by when we open newspapers, local and national to read about some act of vandalism, abuse, violence or theft etc. from children, teenagers or young adults. Some parents do not seem to know or care what their children are up to.
Ron
Bristol, UK