Cyber-bullying is a serious problem in our communities. Though many people are unaware of the severity of cyber-bullying, this site is designed to inform you about the problem, so that together we can work together to stop it. Cyber-bullying is when a child, preteen or teenager bullies another through the use of email, text messages, etc. Cyber-bullying compares, and well as contrasts with traditional school yard bullying in many ways. Below are some generalizations of what may occur in traditional bullying and cyber-bullying.

 Traditional Bullying: When two young individuals are face to face in a school yard many things can happen:

• A child can physically get hurt

• A child of a larger and meaner demeanor can be picking on a child of a much smaller and harmless demeanor

• Traditional bullying makes it much harder for a defenseless child to protect themselves against their bully

• ·Sometimes the bullying will occur in a back hallway, a bathroom, or other places where a teacher or some authoritative figure cannot see the action,therefore the incident will keep occurring because the victim has no way to prove it is happening.

• The child doing the bullying can get in trouble with the teacher, principal and parents if the action is caught and will sometimes lead to suspension or expulsion from school

• Outside students may gang up on or become involved in the fight against a classmate (causing the fighting to be for example 3 against 1)

Cyber-bullying: When two young individuals are in cyber-space anything can happen:

• Cyberspace allows the smaller, defenseless individual to gang up on the big bully type kid

• Cyberspace allows one to remain anonymous, therefore it makes it much harder for them to get in trouble

• Because physical fighting cannot occur, verbal abuse often takes its place which can sometimes be much more painful

• If a bully remains anonymous in cyberspace, the fights can occur more often, without being bullied in meet-space.

• If the bully does not remain anonymous, there can be consequences online and also on the playground. (ex: If the puny kid is picking on the big bully type online, the big bully type may turn around and punch the puny kid in the face at school)

• Cyber-bullying can be taken to different levels that traditional bullying cannot.

(ex: the bully could take a picture of the victims face and paste it onto the picture of a naked body and email that picture to every classmate they know)

 There are many other examples of how Cyber-bullying and traditional bullying compare and contrast, but hopefully that will give you a peek at where this web essay will take you. Cyber-bullying is very dangerous because you never know (a) just how far the bully will go to make the other person feel horrible about themselves and (b) the mental state of the victim. There have been very unfortunate instances where young teens have committed suicide over something that another individual said to them over the internet. In the follow pages, you will learn what cyber-bullying is, some of the facts about cyber-bullying as well as research done by sociologist on cyber-bullying. You will also learn the best ways to prevent cyber-bullying and how to get involved. You will also be provided with external links to the sources that are most helpful to learn even more about this growing problem.