Mobile phones and the internet are great, you can contact your friends easily and find out just about anything you want to know.  Sadly they also have their dark sides, and more and more people are bullying online and using text messages.

What is Cyberbullying?

Basically, using the web or mobile phones to bully someone.  There are different ways this can be done.

Online Bullying

Some people send abusive instant messages or emails and some people write nasty comments on your Bebo or similar profile.  Some even go so far as to create websites to spread rumours and worse. This can be from one person or a group of people.

Text Bullying

Bullying someone by sending abusive text messages or phonecalls. Like other types of bullying, it can be just one person or a group.

What can I do about Cyberbullying?

It is a criminal offence to make anonymous and/or abusive phone calls and texts. Online abuse can also be a matter for the police, depending on what is said.

1. Keep a record of text messages, emails, message boards and instant messaging (your program often saves what you have written, or you could copy and paste it into a word document). Don’t reply to bullying texts, emails or messages.
2. Contact your mobile and internet service providers to see what they can do to help. If someone makes a website about you or writes bad things about you on another website, you can contact the website host to have it shut down. It’s also a good idea to let the police know. 
3. Change your mobile phone number and be careful who you give it to. Get yourself a new email address and instant messenger profile. It’s a bit of a pain but it will help. It’s quite easy to block someone from being able to contact you on instant messenger, have a look under ‘Help’ on the program you use. You can also sometimes block people from being able to email you or call you on your mobile. Again, check under ‘Help’ on your email program and have a look through your phone handbook.