Cyberbullying A Growing Problem

Amanda Butterfield reporting School bullies are finding a new way to pick on your children.

Amanda Butterfield learned new ways to protect your children, at a conference on child abuse and family violence.

Let me show you a helpful program online-- Netsmartz.org. It teaches parents and kids online safety, and some new material it covers is cyberbullying. Here's what teachers, police officers, attorneys, parents, and at least one child learned about it today:

Isaac is being a little fussy at his first internet safety class, but it's okay. He's only four-months old, and he's got his mom here paying attention for him. Rachel Armstrong is learning about online predators, internet stalkers, and something that's getting noticed: cyberbullying.

Esther Cookson/NetSmartz: "What happens in the classroom is now happening online."

Name calling, gossip, rumors... it's all being posted.

Esther Cookson: "The biggest issue of cyberbullying is once it's out there, you can never get it back."

Listen to this story of a highschooler who's internet passwords got into the wrong hands:

"The girls got into my email and sent emails to all the senior guys and it looked like it was from me. In the email was a picture of me with no clothes on."

"Now I can't go anywhere at school without guys looking at me funny and people whispering and pointing at me when they think I can't see."

Rachel can hardly believe this happens.

"I mean, I really have not understood the extent of the internet," she says.

But now she does, so when Isaac grows up and gets online, she's learned never to have a computer in a closed room. Knowing what she knows now, Rachel wouldn't mind if Isaac stayed this little for a long time.

Rachel: "It hurts already to think of what he might go through."

One out of every 17 children is bullied on the internet.

If you want to check out NetSmartz for more information, see the link in the box at the top of this report.

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