Cyberbullying

Today, people all over the world have the capability to communicate with each other with just a click of a button. People communicate by weblogs, email, cell phones, text-messaging and other technological advancements in communication. Because it is so easy to communicate with others, a growing concern is cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying occurs when individuals “[use] the Internet and electronic communication technologies to transmit hostile messages and images” p. 63 to another person (Dyrli, 2005).

Although anyone can become a victim of cyber-bullying, many teens become victims due to their desire use modern technology and their failure to use safe internet practices. Keith and Martin (2005) reveal that some teens use the Internet to build websites to bully other teens and post embarrassing pictures and messages on websites or online journals. Often it is difficult to determine the person who is responsible for cyber-bullying because false names are used. Occurrences of cyber-bullying should not be taken lightly because cyber-bullying is much more damaging to teens than traditional bullying since harmful messages and images can be communicated to a much larger audience (Strom & Strom, 2005).

Most occurrences of cyber-bullying occur while teens are at home; however, often teachers and administrators are forced to deal with the repercussions during the school day (Blair, 2003). For this reason, it is important that schools develop a policy that addresses how to deal with cyber-bullying and educate their students about the consequences of cyber-bullying. In addition, it is important that they provide their students with prevention methods to help decrease incidents of cyber-bullying. Schools should develop clear policies for the use of technology in their schools, ensure that these policies are implemented, and enforce consequences for students who violate these policies (Franek, 2006). In fact, Franek (2006) reports that students should be aware that all...