You've got h8 mail.

As I scour my daily newspaper, it seems we are bombarded with the articles about cyber bullying and online hoaxes. As Frances whiting, author of the article, 'You've got hate mail', so effectively puts it"Bullying has stepped out of the shadows of the playground. It's gone hi-tech and round -the- clock, forcing some kids to leave their school - and others to take far more drastic action."Several other claims have been made through various newspapers and magazines that the online environment, in particular social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and MSN are the culprits for a surging number of cyber bullying cases and suicides. So are these sites really the blame for bullying? It is a well known fact that bullies have been around forever. It’s the common tale that “as long as there have been sheds, there have been bullies to step out of the shadows behind them.” (Whiting, 2008) Technology has however given birth to a new breed of bullies. Nowadays, the bullying doesn’t stop when the leave the school gates. It follows you home encompassing victims as it filtrates their life 24 hours a day.
Dr Marilyn Campbell, Senior lecturer in psychology and Education at QUT describes the process well.

"Cyber bullying, or bullying through technology, can be done in myraid ways. Via email, by text messages, by enterering social networking sites such as MySpace, Facbook and Bebo, then setting up fake, mocking profiles and inviting others to join in. By accessing someone's site as a friend then sabotaging it from within. By taking and distributing images from mobile phones, by posting videos on YouTube, by impersonating someone online, by threatening a player in an interactive game room, by doctoring online images. It can be done by "blocking" targets from entering instant messaging applications such as MSN and not allowing them to join in the online conversation. It can be done in all theses ways and "any other way you can think of, it's being invented and re-invented all the time."(Dr Marilyn Campbell, 2008)

According to Campbell the 24-7 nature of the cyber bullying “will have fair more psychological damaging consequences” because of the nature of it. At present several offences to cyber bullying are listed in the Queensland criminal code. The severity of cyber-bullying at present is grossly underestimated by the majority of the population. At present several schools throughout Brisbane have been forced to implement anti-bullying policies. But how much of this can schools really monitor? What control is there against this potentially lethal form of online bullying? It is evident that schools have recognized the severity, through implementation of policies such as the anti-bullying one. Is this enough but? As the World Wide Web continues in infiltrate the social fabric of lives, the problem of cyber bullying continues to grow. I have merely brushed the surface of this topic as time permits me from fully exploring the depths of this issue. It is a problem and a large one at that which comes with the emergence of new media technologies. It is also a area that needs a lot of attention and fast. Before its too late.