What is cyber-bullying?

Research commissioned by the Anti-Bullying Alliance indicates that there are seven categories of cyber-bullying to be aware of:

• Text message bullying - bullies reach their victims by sending them unpleasant and unwelcome text messages
• Picture/Video clip bullying via mobile phones - bullies take embarrassing films or images of the victims and send them to friends. Alternatively, ‘Happy slapping' involves filming physical abuse and sharing it with friends
• Phone call bullying via mobile phones - usually involves prank calls from disguised or hidden numbers, or stealing the victim's phone and making calls or messages to other people, pretending to be the phone owner
• Email bullying - similar to bullying via text messaging, the victim will usually receive unwelcome emails from bullies pretending to be someone else
• Chat room bullying - not unlike the type of thing you get in the playground, bullies will respond abusively or encourage others to turn on the victim in a web-based chat room
• Instant message bullying - again, a form of web-based bullying where children and young people are sent unpleasant messages as they conduct real-time conversations online
• Bullying via websites - this can include abusive web logs (blogs), whole websites dedicated to embarrassing the victim, as well as online personal polling sites. Social networking sites have also increased the scope for cyber bullying.

Those who take part in online bullying often use a group of friends to target their victims by asking them to add a comment to a photo on a blog, or asking them to forward it onto another group of friends. Sometimes, these people don't even realise they're actually bullying someone and get caught up in cyber-bullying simply by not thinking about the consequences of what they are doing.

However the impact on the lives of young people can be considerable and in some cases tragic. Unlike the type of bullying that goes on in the street or at school, escaping cyber-bullying can be very difficult – messages can be sent 24 hours a day, everyday of the week, anonymously. So it can even be tough for those on the receiving end to avoid it in the safety of their own home.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance has these top tips for dealing with cyber-bullying:

• Keep evidence of cyber bullying by saving messages and MSN conversations.
• Don’t reply. Tell your child to never retaliate but instead if they’ve been sent a nasty message to bock the bully and report it to an adult they can trust.
• Report it officially. Most websites and mobile phone operators have a place where you can report abuse.
• Remind your child to always respect others. Be careful what you say and what you send. Messages and images can be made public and could stay online forever.
• Get your child to protect their online accounts and mobile phone with a password – and ensure they don’t share it with anyone.

For more advice on how to deal with cyber-bullying read our parents' action plan.