By, Nadine Tereposky

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that is done online, often done because of a photo someone uploaded or a rumor that was spread by someone that doesn’t like you, cyberbullying is usually done in a hostile manner, used to harass and harm other people.

Most teens who don’t have a cell phone are usually excluded from the teens who do, mostly girls are found to be more likely to exclude others, boys just threaten with physical violence. In America, an 11-year-old named Natalie did a newspaper interview about how every girl in class was invited to a sleepover but one, the girls that did go to the sleepover went online and taunted the one girl that didn’t go.

Harassment is when bullies send offensive messages targeted at one person or a group of people, bullies usually send message after message, or just random times of the day. Some bullies post their message on their wall or blog so everyone can see it.

Outing is when someone shows or forwards a piece of personal communication like a text, an , or an IM(instant message), a lot of bullies print out instant messaging conversations, most which contain personal or sexual info, then they show it to others. Just reading a saved message on a person’s cell phone is a type of outing, outing can cause real psychological damage to the people that are involved, that’s only if the message contains private info.

Cyberstalking is a type of harassment. Usually messages are sent through personal communications, like ’s, texts, and maybe instant messages, the victims of cyberstalking start thinking that cyberstalking can escalate to real stalking.

Masquerading is an elaborate of cyberbullying, the bully pretends to be someone else that isn’t them. They would create fake ’s fake IM names or use someone else's or cell phone to bully you, it would make it like someone else is bullying you, while the real bully’s identity is still unknown and hidden.

Flaming is a really intense argument that takes place in chat rooms, instant messages or . USING ALL CAPS, images and symbols while they argue. Real life example of flaming from People Magazine: "I was instant messaging my best friend, and we had an argument over a guy…The next day she printed the conversation and handed it to a group of girls, but she'd changed it. It read like I had said all these really mean things [about them all] that I never said, and they believed her.”

Pseudonyms or Alias are like another word for nickname. Bullies can use a different name when they are online they do that so they wont get caught and to hide their real identity from you. When you use MSN messenger or Yahoo messenger people see you as the name you put. Bullies use the same messenger that you do, they just use a fake name so you don’t know who they actually are.

Anonymity is when someone sends hate to you but you don't know who they are. So it is hard to figure out who send the threatening , Or IM, Anonymity is a huge issue with aliases and pseudonyms. Anonymity is also a big issue with cyberbullying. If you get a text from a unknown number chances are you won’t ever find out who sent the text, it could possibly be a family member or a friends number you once deleted, or the bully might use someone else’s phone to text you

Never share private info, don’t use all caps when you are talking to someone, try to identify the cause, stop reacting to the bully, just don’t let it bug you because everything they are saying probably isn't true, save the evidence to show an adult, close friend, block the person who is bullying you, change your account settings, make it so only certain people can see what you do, don’t take forever to tell someone you are being cyberbullied, talk to the school principle, report the bully to the service provider. If those don’t help get law enforcement involved.

Cyberbullying can cause major stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts. It can make teens skip school, stop eating, run away from home, and have a really bad behavior towards pretty much everyone. Cyberbullying also affects teachers and other school staff.

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