[honeychile]

IMHO, cyberbullying is different in one major respect. Some kid might be a real nut job, and get bullied at school. The bullies might even follow him on the school bus or follow him home.

But with cyberbullying, there's no escape. Go home, watch some tv, and boot up to do homework & see what's going on on the internet and wham! There it is again. The bullies that the kid knows have now influenced total strangers to jump in on him, and it's relentless. Sooner or later, the bullies get the cell phone number, and now that's ruined, too. It's not a matter of turning off the computer or screening the calls, because let's face it, even Wikipedia has bastardized articles that the kid might have to use to do his homework. I would imagine that this same kid has bad dreams, so there is literally no escaping the harrassment.

Bullies are cowards. They are so afraid that they will lose their own standings that they will heckle or join in just to stay on top. Some scapegoats survive this, some don't.

My gosh, there was a kid in my class when I was in high school who was thrown into the Goodwill box every day after school, and sometimes the bullies threw lit matches in after him. It made me sick to my stomach - enough so that I told my mom about it, and she had a friend call the bullies and tell them that she saw what happened, got their names, and would call the police if it ever happened again. It stopped after that, but what if it hadn't? Of all people, I had a good reason NOT to like the scapegoat, but someone had to stand up for this guy, and the bullies were more than I could handle.

He had a chance, because he could go home, do his homework and watch tv. His parents screened his phone calls, so no one was calling him, berating him all night. He got a good night's sleep so he could survive another day.

Had he lived in this day & age, I could totally understand him cracking under the pressure. Seriously.