Cyberspace has replaced the schoolyard as the preferred space for bullying among many US kids, who are going online to threaten, insult and harass each other outside the watchful eye of teachers or parents. According to statistics, more than a third of American teenagers who use instant messaging and social networking sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, Xanga and Friendster fall victim to electronic insults, often by schoolmates.
"Many kids are involved or engaged in this behavior because it is sort of out of distance," Justin Patchin, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, told AFP.
"They don't see the harm that they are causing, they don't really think that they are doing anything wrong, they think they're just having fun," he added.
The bullying includes nasty remarks posted on personal pages or repeated insults during instant messaging conversations.
Sometimes, however, the aggression goes even further. According to a study by the University of Wisconsin, 12.6 percent of respondents reported that they had been threatened physically and almost five percent said they feared for their safety.
The phenomenon has even provoked suicides. In 2005, a 15-year-old boy named Jeff killed himself in the southern state of Florida after being harassed for two years on the Internet by other teenagers.
Another 13-year-old boy from the northeast state of Vermont, Ryan Halligan, committed suicide in 2003. Halligan, who suffered from a slight handicap, had become the butt of jokes on the Internet by several girls.
"Cyber-bullying wasn't the only factor but those who were close to the situation maintained that it was a primary contribution to the kid's depression and ultimate suicide," Patchin said.
He said girls were just as prone to engage in this sort of bullying as boys.
Girls are also more likely to be subjected to online bullying -- 38.3 percent are bullied against 34.4 percent for boys -- but 27.3 percent of them don't hesitate to answer back, according to the University of Wisconsin study.
"When you think about traditional schoolyard bullying, it seems to be a more boy-dominated affair," Patchin said. "But with cyber-bullying, girls and boys are equally likely to be involved in the behavior."
He said girl bullying is "more subtle, more subversive, more indirect or more relational aggression," and the Internet was the perfect place for that kind of aggression.
The most commonly used insults among girls are "fat, ugly, slut and bitch" along with the spreading of lies and rumors.
Faced with this growing trend taking place outside the school walls, American educators say they are often at a loss on how to respond.
"It's a very difficult challenge," said Ann Flynn, director of education at the National School Boards Association. "Basically, it is as if everyday a child walks from school, someone stands on a corner and yells something negative.
"How can the school be held accountable for what happens on the sidewalk?"
Many school districts are addressing the problem by creating "respect policies" or honor codes under which cyber-bullying would fall, Flynn said.
"I would really hesitate to see a law passed," she added. "You do get very close to infringing on freedom of speech when you start to legislate some of this."
She said a national study was underway on the use of social networking sites by teenagers and parents' perception of what their children are doing online.
"Quite frankly the social networking phenomenon has grown so quickly that it's very hard to have a good baseline of what's happening," Flynn said.
