For years now, the public has been educated on the realities of bullying in American schools. Everything from real-life situations such as the Columbine shootings to movies like Mean Girls, have illustrated a growing trend toward mental, verbal and physical intimidation on the playground, in the classroom and around school campuses across the nation. Now, we can add cyberbullying to the list.

Although the term might be unfamiliar to most adults, cyberbullying has been a growing threat for students aged nine to 14 for some time. According to i-SAFE America, a non-profit group that educates parents and kids about using the internet responsibly, more than 40 percent of kids have been bullied online.

Cyberbullying is so damaging because it opens up bullying to anybody. “New technology has developed bullying to a new level,” said Kevin Daily, President of the Parent Teacher Association of Connecticut.

According to Dr. Jo Ann Freiberg of Operation Respect, a nonprofit organization that works to end ridicule, bullying and violence among students, cyberbullying has grown considerably with kids’ access to computers.

“It tends to start in late elementary school and blossoms and blooms in middle school,” said Freiberg. Girls are the worst perpetrators of cyberbullying. She believes kids are more prone to intimidate through cyberspace because it’s easier to hurt another person without having them there.

Cyberbullying takes on many forms. The most common types of cyberbullying occur through text messaging, online journals (blogs), chat rooms, instant messaging and e-mail. Generally, victims of cyberbullying are targeted in a fairly consistent way. Boys are labeled homosexuals and girls are characterized as being sexually promiscuous.

“This avalanche of technologies ? e-mail, instant messages, online journals, polling sites, chat rooms, cellphones, text messages, cellphone cameras ? in the hands of youths almost ensures tech-harassment,” said William Belsey, an Alberta, Canada, educator who coined the phrase “cyber-bullying.”

Addressing the growing problem of cyberbullying is as difficult as handling traditional bullying. “I think you have to teach your kids to be good kids, to be decent people, to do the right thing,” said Joanna Scheier, a Montclair, N.J., psychotherapist.

It is also important that high school guidance counselors, educators and parents convey the seriousness of cyberbullying. Every school should incorporate some form of anti-cyberbullying policy in addition to the traditional bullying policy. Just because the damage is done in virtual reality doesn’t mean the affects are less damaging.

Engage students in open discussion about cyberbullying and its affects on the victims. Many organizations, such as Operation Respect, have programs that address the growing cyberbullying problem.

The Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use recommends the following for victims of cyberbullying:

• Ignore the cyberbully and block further online communication.
• Save evidence and try to identify the bully.
• Contact parents of the cyberbully and present them with evidence. Request that the behavior stop.
• Inform school officials.
• Contact an attorney or file a claim in small-claims court. The parents of a bully can be sued for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
• Contact police if there are threats of violence, extortion hate crimes or sexual exploitation.