Cyberbullying

According to Wikipedia, the definition of Cyber-bullying is when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person online or repeatedly picks on another person through emails or text messages, or uses online forums and postings online intended to harm, damage, humiliate or isolate another person that they don’t like. In most of the articles I found abut the subject, I noticed that it is usually defined as a pre-teen or teen age problem. I was also surprised to read that when the bullying includes sexual remarks or harassment, it is not necessarily defined as sexual harassment and the bully in not automatically characterized as a sexual predator.

Bullying by children has always been a problem, but cyberbullying takes it to a new level as the bully has a large audience with little effort. The results of cyberbullying are also not always as obvious as a bruise or black eye. The emotional damage of cyberbullying can be tremendous, and it is not always as easy to prove as traditional bullying.
The website http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov offers these tips to help prevent cyberbullying:
*Keep your home computer(s) in easily viewable places , such as a family room or kitchen.
*Talk regularly with your child about on-line activities he or she is involved in.
*Talk specifically about cyberbullying and encourage your child to tell you immediately if he or she is the victim of cyberbullying, cyberstalking, or other illegal or troublesome on-line behavior.
*Encourage your child to tell you if he or she is aware of others who may be the victims of such behavior.
*Explain that cyberbullying is harmful and unacceptable behavior. Outline your expectations for responsible online behavior and make it clear that there will be consequences for inappropriate behavior.
*Although adults must respect the privacy of children and youth, concerns for your child’s safety may sometimes override these privacy concerns. Tell your child that you may review his or her on-line communications if you think there is reason for concern.
*Consider installing parental control filtering software and/or tracking programs, but don’t rely solely on these tools.

These tips were designed for parents, but as educators, we have the responsibility to teach acceptable online behavior and monitor our student's activity on the web while they are at school.