Whereas schoolyard bullies use their physical presence to control and intimidate others, cyberbullies use the Internet to do the same thing, by posting hurtful messages online. To be able to stop this kind of behavior at its source, you have to understand the technology involved.
Social networks are online communities that allow friends to find and connect with each other. One study found that over sixty percent of teenagers thirteen to seventeen have a personal profile on one of these websites. The two most popular right now are MySpace and Facebook, both of which allow anyone with an email address to
maintain their own personal webspace.
MySpace is currently growing at a rate of hundreds of thousands of new users per day. These users can post pictures, blogs (online personal journals that anyone can view), or even videos to their page. MySpace users can also comment to each other's pages. Facebook is much the same, a website valued at billions of dollars, where millions of users connect online. The major difference between MySpace and Facebook is that Facebook users can only view someone else's profile if that person is in their "network"--they have to already be friends. Like MySpace, users can comment on each other's pages, to pictures, etc.
There are also online communities dedicated to blogging, such as Livejournal. This network of blogs lets users comment to each other's journal entries, while (like the social networking sites) maintaining a circle of friends. There are also services that provide easy tools to build stand-alone blogs that anyone on the Internet can view, such as Blogger and Wordpress.
One of the newer online hang-outs is YouTube, where users can upload videos for others to watch. Anyone can upload any sort of video, and has already been proven as a dangerous forum for cyberbullies. There have already been cases where high school students have used the site to make death threats.
A more instantaneous tool for cyberbullying is instant messenger. There are many different services (Yahoo, IRC, etc.), but AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) is probably the most popular. Users can take part in real-time conversation online. Used wisely, this can actually be a great tool in the classroom, but in the wrong hands, it can also be a tool for the cyberbully.
These are just the most popular, of course. There is also a dizzying array of Internet forums catering to every interest, including those dedicated to sharing hate or gossip. Websites like ihateher.com are designed as outlets for airing dirty laundry or spreading cruel words about someone else.
Since these sites have little or no content restrictions, there is nothing to stop a bully from saying whatever he or she likes online. Written words can be just as cruel as spoken ones, and cyberbullying has the added bonuses of A) anonymity, and B) a wider audience. If you are a parent concerned about
cyberbullying, you may want to find out if your child frequents any of these sites. Keep in mind that the sites themselves can be great tools for exactly what they're supposed to be--connecting with friends--but like anything else, can be used for bad things in the wrong hands.