Many chat rooms and online game services have rules agreements in that place that do not tolerate verbal abuse or inappropriate language. Make sure that your child is a member only on sites that have this type of agreement. If your child becomes targeted contact the site administrators and report the abuse. In most cases the person responsible will get a warning or will be banned from using the site. The administrators may also contact other sites to let them know of the situation and the abuser may also be blocked from those sites as well.

Blocking is another effective technique to shutting down a cyber bully. If your child recognises the phone number or the on screen name that the bully is using they can simply activate the blocking feature. This will prevent the bully from being able to send abusive messages directly. If the bully is unable to directly contact their victim they will often loose interest.

Many parents are not aware that their child may be an online bully. If you know who the on-line bully is contact the parents of that child and make them aware of the situation. Many parents who find out their child is cyber bully will be willing to aid in getting the problem resolved.

If you do not know who the online bully is and the bullying is threatening, pornographic or harassing you may have to take legal action. If the bully has hacked into an account or has stolen a password it is time to contact the police. It is important to keep track of any information you have about the bully. How often it is happened, which sites were used and what were the messages directed at your child. These incidents should be reported quickly before they become an even bigger problem. Cyber bullying like all bullying should never be ignored.

Where once bullying was confined to face to face interaction the cyber bully can now reach his victims through the internet or other modern means of communication. Bullying is no longer confined to the workplace or school yard. Where once the victim could find refuge in their home this security is now being taken away. The victim can easily be targeted through the use of cell phones or the computers.

Cyber bullies tend to be even more hurtful and aggressive online than they would be in person because most of the time they can remain anonymous. They have less fear of being caught. They also have the advantage of the fact that they do not have to face an actual physical confrontation with their victim. The damage can all be done from the safety of their own home.

With a few simple words online from the bully the victim can be humiliated and harassed at any time. And once something is on the net it is virtually impossible to eradicate it. The bully can also reach a much wider audience. It is possible for victims to be harassed not only by children within their own actual peer group but from others who might be half a world away. The internet exposes to children to a whole new world where bullies can be anywhere at any time and have no fear of reprisals.

While directly blocking the bully is almost always an option it does not prevent the bully from continuing to post or leave comments on websites about the victim. This often happens in chat rooms or online game sites where children and adults form groups or cliques on line.

Stopping the schoolyard bully was almost always feasible. Stopping on line bullying is virtually impossible. Comments made on line can reach an almost unlimited number of people. The chances of discovering the sender and of being able to convince them to stop their tactics are almost none. The damage being caused by cyber bullies is far worse than most people know and the emotional damage being done is immeasurable.