Cyber-Bullying is “In”
The standard schoolyard bullying that most of us experienced at some point growing up is being replaced by a new form of torment: Cyberbullying.
From the article:
According to statistics, more than a third of American teenagers who use instant messaging and social networking sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, Xanga and Friendster fall victim to electronic insults, often by schoolmates.
The phenomenon has even provoked suicides. In 2005, a 15-year-old boy named Jeff killed himself in the southern state of Florida after being harassed for two years on the Internet by other teenagers.
Another 13-year-old boy from the northeast state of Vermont, Ryan Halligan, committed suicide in 2003. Halligan, who suffered from a slight handicap, had become the butt of jokes on the Internet by several girls.
The article also goes on to mention that while classic schoolyard bullying mainly involved boys, girls are actually slightly bigger perpetrators of cyberbullying than boys.
Fortunately, there are ways for parents to get help in dealing with cyberbullies. Cyberbully.org is a good place to start. They have an excellent guide (PDF) to cyberbullying as well.