Cyberbullying

What is a cyberbully? It is anyone who uses electronic communication to bully another person. This type of bullying includes name calling, the spreading of gossip (including false accusations) and issuing threats. Various means of communication are used by the bully including e-mail, chat, instant messenging and social network sites.

The school recently received the “School Administrator’s Guide” from MySpace. The purpose of this booklet is to educate the school administration about the features of MySpace as well as the abilities of the individul and the school to report abuses. Included in the brochure is information on how to report cyberbullying. According to the guide, anyone who feels they are the victim of cyberbullying on MySpace should do the following:

• Click “Contact MySpace”, located on the bottom of any MySpace.com web page;

• Select “Reporting Abuse” from the first dropdown menu;
• Select “Report Cyberbullying” in the second dropdown menu;
• Follow any and all subsequent directions.

The Wikipedia article on Cyberbullying contains examples of online bullying and links to various websites trying to combat online bullying.