Cyber bullying can be small arguements or simply nitpicking on an unsuspecting poster. Usually, there is a head leader who directs his / her followers via email. Once the plan has been set into motion, then the attacks begin. The leader of the group, will usually justify their attacks to other members, brainwashing them into believing the attack was warranted. These bullies main motive is to cause disruption within the community. Other factors include fear of change, fear of losing ranking status within the internet community, and fear of losing popularity. Many people confuse the 'troll' as a cyber bully but a troll is far from it.

Trolls are better described as a poster who has nothing better to do than post a comment which he / she knows will get some type of negative feedback. EX: A troll might go into a vegan board and ask for a beef recipe. Harmless post but yet getting the reaction from the vegans. After all, the troll is asking for a recipe in a non meat eating group. Who could blame the vegans for being upset?

Cyber bullies are not like this at all. They will seek out their victim and literally hound them until the victim becomes upset, angry, or even black balled. Ranging from petty comments to full flegded attacks. Most cyber bullies have a super sized egos. Cyber bullies are very good at stirring the pot. They enjoy watching and waiting for their victim to slip up. Once the victim slips up, then the cyber bully will call upon others to help with the attacks. The leader of the bullies often manipulate his followers.

Cyber bullies believe no one will or can do anything about their behaviors. Wrong. There are steps to protect those who are being bullied online.

Things you can do if you are being bullied online.

1) Do not engage with the bullies. Once you respond back to the bullies, it gives them more excuses to fire attacks. Keep a record of all attacks and email them to the administrator of the board. Newsgroups are much harder to control as it is an open, public forum. However, you can email the bully's ISP w/ full headers. No ISP will allow them to do this as they have standards for the bully to follow. Usually after several documented emails from the victim, the bully will receive a warning, and if they continue, then the bully can and will lose their ISP. If it is a chatboard, email the administrators of the board and show them the url of the attacks. If the owners / administrators do not do anything about it, then it is time to leave that board. There are plenty of chatboards out there.

2) Sit back and watch how they operate. You will begin to notice a pattern. You will be able to see exactly who is the leader, and the members of the cyber bully's group. Eventually it becomes funny to watch the bullies. They slip up as well and once they do, then they can look like the asses.

3) Beware of the cyberbully who becomes the internet stalker. If this happens, change your email address immediately, change your username, change ISP's, and leave the newsgroups, or chatboards. Keep all records of all emails (including headers), and records of all correspondance. Contact your local police and file a report. As the internet has grown, there has been a cry out for police officials who are trained with in the internet community. Once the police become involved, then they will determine if a crime has taken place. If it has, then it will go to the State Police who will take the case over. The police officials will go into the chatroom, or newsgroup and watch what is going on. Not only that, but they will also look for all hard copies of the internet stalking. Police officials will go as far as taking the person and ISP to court with the State's Attorney. ISP's will give up their customer's information. EX: Addresses, full names, and what type of account they have. All it takes is a simple subpeona from the courts.

You can find a wealth of information at this website, Bully Online. Remember, the bully can only hide behind his / her monitors for so long.

http://www.bullyonline.org/