Cyber Woolly Bully - What Can Be Done?

Recently, school districts in Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, and Utah have instituted new policies designed to deal with cyber-bullies. The state of Washington has passed a law that requires cyber-bullying be a part of the school district's harassment policies. Also, New York City has already banned the use of portable communication devices in school buildings. In January 2006, President Bush passed a law that forbids the posting or emailing of messages meant to annoy people without having included one's true identity. The law states:

Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet...without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Bullying, like most other problems, is something that needs to be attacked head on. One obvious thing you can do is be cautious about where you post personal information. This can be hard for young people who use social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook, but you can never be too careful, especially considering shows like “To Catch a Predator.” By limiting the number of people with access to this information, it could be easier to identify a bully if such an occasion were to arise.

If you do find yourself being bullied, the best thing would be to not provoke them. I know that it's hard for people to downright ignore the situation, especially when they are being barraged, but a bully tends to thrive on their victim's reactions, so a reaction from you will only exacerbate the problem. It's much easier to just change an email address or screen name if the situation calls for it. However, you should keep a record of any instances for future reference.

You can report any harassment to your local law enforcement agency, so that they can determine whether the actions fall under free speech or are a punishable offense. If it involves a student, then you should probably also notify school officials.

Despite all we've learned about cyber-bullying, it is still the minority form of bullying among young people. Face to face aggression, be it verbal or physical, is still the most widespread form. However, I think the mental impact of cyber-bullying can be just as damaging as anything face to face. There have already been reports of suicide from around the globe.

There are literally thousands of sites on the Internet dedicated to cyber-bullying prevention, but if you're in need of a quick fix, this site should suffice. Otherwise, I hope this article has indeed be interesting and informative.