Cyberbullying is the use of e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, pagers, cell phones, or other forms of information technology to deliberately harass, threaten, or intimidate someone. Cyberbullying is often done by children, who have increasing access to these technologies. However, it is by no means confined to children. The problem is compounded by the fact that a bully can hide behind an electronic veil, disguising his or her true identity. This makes it difficult to trace the source, and encourages bullies to behave more aggressively than they might face-to-face.
Cyberbullying can include such acts as making threats, sending provocative insults or racial or ethnic slurs, gay bashing, attempting to infect the victim's computer with a virus, and flooding an e-mail inbox with nonsense messages. If you are a victim, you can deal with cyberbullying to some extent by limiting computer connection time (not being always on), not responding to threatening or defamatory messages, and never opening e-mail messages from sources you do not recognize. More active measures include the blacklisting or whitelisting of e-mail accounts, changing e-mail addresses, changing ISPs, changing cell phone accounts, and attempting to trace the source. In some cases, it may be advisable to inform the local police department or consult an attorney. It is not recommended that you retaliate in kind because such behavior can lead to civil actions or criminal charges against you.
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