WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT ONLINE THREATS AND HARASSMENT

Jeff D., a New York City sixth grader, endured real-time taunts from the school bully. As payback, he sends his tormentor an email anonymously: "You and your sisters and mom better watch your backs. My dad has a gun."

Maríe S., an eighth grader in Seattle, receives an anonymous instant message that reads, "Marie: We are going to have sex next Friday after the dance. Or else." Marie feels stunned and scared, and wonders if she should tell her mom.

Pretty awful. And happening all the time in a school near you-maybe, to your own child.

What, exactly, is cyberbullying? It "includes online message fighting, cyber-stalking, verbal attacking, defamation, impersonating others, and cyber threats..." explains Midge Sabatini, Ed.D., who serves as the manager of the Coordinated School Health Program for the Rhode Island Department of Education.

How can parents and educators handle insidious cyberbullies, who can intimidate anonymously with the touch of a keyboard or the click of a cell phone camera? As director of STUDIOLO, an organization that promotes safety and health programs around the country, I teach school groups what to do about cyberbullying-and more, how to build character, so that kids have less desire to pursue this type of behavior. And yet, the fact remains that your wired kids, and the other 80,000,000 people posting on sites such as the hugely popular MySpace.com or FaceBook.com are part of an international communication system for the masses-and this has changed childhood irrevocably.

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Issue: August 2007