Cyberbullying & social networking

It describes a few particular vicious cases (including one mom finding out about an egregious attack on her 13-year-old daughter from her 17-year-old son) but tries to provide perspective. "Although largely harmless, the boom in social networking sites has been accompanied by the spread of 'cyberbullying,' a trend that some experts believe is fast getting out of hand and may be being exaggerated in the UK by Bebo's focus on schools [Bebo has 4 million users in Britain]. In a recent Microsoft survey of 500 UK 12-to-15-year-olds, more than 1 in 10 (11%) said they had been bullied online." Research into digital bullying has only just begun in the US, but USATODAY reported on a small study of 65 girls aged 15-18 that showed how mobile bullying is getting. Presented at a meeting of the American Educational Research Association, it found that "self-identified female bullies most often text-messaged harassment by cellphone, preferring it nearly 2 to 1 over email, Web sites and instant messaging. About 45% had been victims of cyberbullying." Bullying's victims, of course, are not kids. A 14-year-old student in suburban Chicago faces felony harassment charges for "threatening the life of a school official on MySpace.com," the Associated Press reported this week.