Today, children are not able to escape from bullying the way they were able to in the past. When I was growing up, the moment you reached home, the bullying stopped. Unfortunately, that is not the case for our children today. In the Internet age, the abuse shoveled upon targets can escalate at home and often dwarfs the bullying they receive at school.

What are the various types of bullying that occurs online?

Flaming: Flames are angry, rude arguments that occur online. It is typically a string of rude, hostile messages that frequently contain vulgarities.

Denigration:  This is the “dissing” someone online by spreading rumors or posting false information.

Outing and trickery: This is when embarrassing, private information is disseminated online. The private information is sometimes obtained through trickery, which is why the definitions are combined here.

Impersonation: This occurs when someone pretends to be someone else and posts material which is damaging to that person’s reputation.

Exclusion: This is a very typical mean girls action in which a person is intentionally excluded from an online group.

Online polls: This is when a polling type question is used hurtfully to encourage others to talk badly and/or speculate about a target. Poll questions such as “How many sexually transmitted diseases do you think Emily has?” will be posted for people at the school to respond to.

Cyberstalking: Here, a person creates fear in their target by sending offensive messages and engaging in harmful online activities.

Text barrages: This is where a single target is literally besieged by text messages night and day. Sometimes multiple classmates will agree to deluge the target with a near ceaseless torrent of hatred and foul comments.

If your child is being assaulted at home or at school by bullying, please contact the Law Office of Gregory R. Branch for help.  714 856-1166 or email at gregorybranch@edrightsadvocate.com