Bullying Online Is Common-

Nearly three in four teenagers say they were bullied online at least once during a recent 12-month period.
Only one in 10 reported cyber-bullying to parents or other adults,

(according to a new study by UCLA psychologists).

Of those bullied online, 85% have been bullied at school.
If you get bullied at school you get bullied on the pc too.
"Bullying affects millions of students and is not limited to school grounds.
"Bullying on the Internet looks similar to what kids do face-to-face in school. Among heavy users of the Internet, cyber-bullying is a common experience, and the forms of online and in-school bullying are more alike than different.

Why do so few teenagers tell their parents about being bullied online? The most common reason for not telling an adult, cited by half the bullied participants, was that teens believe they "need to learn to deal with it."
-31% of kids reported that they do not tell because they are concerned their parents might restrict their Internet access.
-46 percent of girls feared restrictions, compared with 27 percent of boys in the same age group.
Many parents have little understanding of their children's Internet use or how vital the Internet is to their social lives. Parents can take action with good intentions and try to protect their children by not letting them use the Internet at all. This is not likely to help parent-teen relationships or the social lives of their children. Most children are using the Internet mainly to connect with friends, not to meet new people, previous research has shown. Kids are mainly using the Internet to maintain relationships like we used to in the old days when we chatted for hours on the phone or hung out at someone's house.

An interesting statistic- 73% of the participants who reported being cyber-bullied said they knew, or were pretty sure they knew, who was doing the bullying. (This is counter to the myth that cyber-bullying is anonymous. Research does not support the assumption that the Internet is changing the nature of bullying.

The most prevalent forms of bullying online and in school involved name-calling or insults. Password theft was the next most common cyber-bullying tactic. Bullying also includes threats, sending embarrassing pictures, sharing private information without permission and spreading nasty rumors.

Cell phones and computers are not the cause of problems among teenagers but are tools that can be used to interact with peers in both antisocial and healthy ways. Parents might overestimate the risk of bullying online and downplay the risk of bullying in school.

Schools are getting better at taking action to reduce bullying — including teaching students strategies for coping with and responding to bullying — and some of them address cyber-bullying as well. There is no reason why cyber-bullying should be 'beyond' the school's responsibility to address. Schools need to enforce intolerance of any type of intimidation among students, regardless of whether it takes place on or outside school grounds.

Bullying is a problem that large numbers of kids confront on a daily basis at school. It's not just an issue for the few unfortunate ones on the internet. Students report feeling humiliated, anxious or disliking school on days when they reported incidents, which shows there is no such thing as 'harmless' name-calling or an 'innocent' punch. Bullying occurs across ethnic groups and income brackets. There is no single user profile or type of target.

Middle school students who are bullied in school are likely to feel depressed, lonely and miserable, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to further bullying incidents. Harassment at school interferes with the ability to learn and makes many students want to withdraw. Children who are embarrassed or humiliated about being bullied in school are unlikely to discuss it with their parents or teacher. They are more likely to suffer in silence and dislike or will be afraid of attending school. I would love parents to talk with their children about bullying before it ever happens, pay attention to changes in your children's behavior and take their concerns seriously.

Kids really do want help.

Mike