In years past, a child who was being bullied at school could go home, and at least get a break from the torment.

"When I was bullied in middle school, I'd go home, slam the door shut, and turn the music up," said Justin Patchin, an assistant professor of criminal justice and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Now, when kids get home, Patchin said, "the first thing they do is turn on their computer" — and in doing so, they may find that the abuse they were seeking to escape has followed them right into their own homes.

Such is the insidious nature of cyber-bullying — there is almost no safe haven from it.

In cyber-bullying, Patchin said, "willful and repeated harm" is inflicted via electronic media such as the Internet, cell phones and text-messaging.

Cyber-bullies may spread malicious rumors about their victims online, or they may subject their victims to a barrage of nasty instant or text messages.

They sometimes post in Internet chat rooms, posing as their victims, or use their victims' images and identities to create fake profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Sometimes, they circulate embarrassing photos via cell phone or computer.

Cyber-bullying essentially uses new technologies to tease, intimidate, mortify, isolate, even harass and threaten victims.

"It's an old threat in new clothing," said Cpl. Gordon J. Berlin of the Elizabethtown Police Department, who gives Internet safety seminars at area schools, churches and youth groups.

His department, he said, handles seven or eight cases of cyber-bullying a month, and "that number has been steadily growing." In most of the cases, there is "one police interview, one discussion with the juvenile, and that's it," he said. But some cases have led to the filing of harassment or harassment by communications charges.

Driven to suicide
In a harrowing case in Missouri, a 13-year-old girl named Megan Meier hanged herself in her bedroom closet in October 2006, after her online relationship with a boy ended abruptly, and other teens joined in taunting Megan online.

Megan had been flirting on MySpace.com with a 16-year-old home-schooled boy named Josh Evans for weeks. One day, she was aghast to find he'd sent her a message saying he wasn't sure he wanted to be her friend any longer, because he had heard she wasn't nice to her friends.

Soon after, Megan was deluged by virulent messages from other kids on MySpace. As The Washington Post put it, Megan was "hounded and publicly humiliated by a teenage mob on the Web, set upon in a virtual Lord of the Cyberflies."

Josh's final message to Megan contained this brutal parting shot: "The world would be a better place without you."

Weeks after her suicide, Megan's parents, Ron and Tina Meier, were horrified to learn that "Josh Evans" was a fictional creation devised by a mother who lived in their neighborhood.

According to media accounts, Lori Drew, 47, wanted to know if Megan was spreading rumors about her own 13-year-old daughter, a former friend and classmate of Megan's. So Drew instigated the fabrication of Josh Evans as a means of keeping an eye on what Megan was saying online.

Megan had attention deficit disorder, and took medication for depression. Tina Meier has said that Lori Drew knew this because Megan had gone on vacation with the Drew family.

According to ABC News, prosecutors in California, where MySpace is based, may charge Drew with wire fraud on behalf of the social networking site. But the Missouri prosecutor who handled the Megan Meier case said he couldn't file criminal charges, because existing laws did not cover what had transpired.

In Pennsylvania
This isn't unusual: The law has been outstripped by technology, a reality that state Sen. and Republican Majority Whip Jane Orie, of Allegheny and Butler counties, is seeking to address.

Orie wants to make cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking and cyber-theft criminal offenses in Pennsylvania. A former prosecutor, Orie has been appalled by not only the Megan Meier case, but by cyber-bullying cases that have happened in this state.

In an interview last week, Orie said she knew of one case in which photos of a learning disabled girl — changing in her school's locker room — were circulated electronically. In another instance, she said, images of a girl being molested at an underage drinking party were disseminated.

Orie said she is "big on free speech," but something needs to be done to "fill the void that exists in the law right now," regarding online bullying.

The state senator noted that information sent out on the Internet can be difficult, often impossible, to get back. Humiliating photos and rumors, lingering in cyberspace, can return to haunt students when college admissions officers and prospective employers do Google searches.

And then there is the emotional toll that may be exacted.

In an interview with her local newspaper, a heartbroken Tina Meier said she didn't believe those who participated in the cruel online assault of her daughter intended "for her to kill herself. But that's how it ended."

Gordon Berlin of the Elizabethtown police said kids often don't grasp the seriousness of what could happen when they bully someone online. If you can't see your victim, and you can't see the pain you are inflicting, you may not realize when you've "crossed the line," Berlin said.

If your victim is emotionally fragile, or has mental health issues, the consequences could be fatal, he said, and "you'll have to live with that your whole life."

The anonymity of cyber-bullying may up the ante, giving bullies a "sense of power," Berlin said, noting, "Kids will say things they probably wouldn't dare to say face to face."

Unprecedented access
And then there's the 24/7 aspect of cyber-bullying. Because the harassment can occur at any time, "it's hard for children and adolescents to feel safe," said Laura Crothers, assistant professor of school psychology at Duquesne University. A victim can be attacked "in any context," she said, and with alarming speed.

"You can do so much on your cell phone these days," Crothers noted. "It's amazing how quickly kids can start an assault of another child — really, at any time. The accessibility is unprecedented."

Added to this is the capability for online attacks to go viral, researcher Patchin pointed out. "Rumors can be sent with one click of the mouse," he said, and these attacks, once dispatched into cyberspace, can multiply exponentially, as each recipient forwards them to everyone he knows.

"There's a difference between having two people tease you and having 22 people tease you," said Dr. Scott Deisley, Manheim Central School District assistant superintendent. "That's what makes this so much more powerful."

According to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly one in three teenagers who use the Internet reported being a target of "annoying and potentially menacing online activities."

Another study, by a national organization called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, found that one in six preteens have been victims of cyber-bullying.

Pew found that girls were more likely than boys to be targets of cyber-bullying. Thirty-eight percent of the girls surveyed said they had been targeted, compared with 26 percent of the boys.

Girls are prone to using relational aggression — rumor-spreading, gossip, exclusion, the use of friendships as a weapon — against one another, Crothers said, noting that technology only is advancing this form of bullying.

Now, a girl can be invited to chat online, either on a site such as MySpace, or via instant messaging, and quickly find herself being assailed by hateful messages and harmful rumors.

"With the innovations that technology allows," Crothers said, "you can have a girl actually participate in her own victimization."

The study conducted for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, found that more than 13 million children, ages 6 to 17, were victims of cyber-bullying. Alarmingly, more than 2 million of those victims told no one about the cyber-bullying.

Justin Patchin has found a similar reluctance to report online bullying. Kids are "not telling adults about it, because they're afraid their parents' knee-jerk reaction will be to simply unplug the computer ... or take away the cell phone," he said.

"This response just kills me," said Patchin, asserting that it punishes the victim by taking away items — computers, cell phones — kids view as essential.

He advises parents to consider this: If their children were being bullied the old-fashioned way — face to face, at school — they wouldn't say, "You're not going to school tomorrow."

'Just sign off'
Last week, a handful of students gathered in a room at Manor Middle School, in the Penn Manor School District, to talk about their adventures, and misadventures, in cyberspace.

The 13- and 14-year-olds — who wanted only their first names to be used — talked about friends who had gotten caught up in exchanges of angry and hurtful instant messages.

One of the youths, whose name was Grace, said a friend — who was using another friend's instant-message account because she didn't have one of her own — called Grace for help in the midst of a testy IM exchange. "I told her, just sign off," she said.

But it can be hard to turn off the computer when tempers are flaring, the youths agreed. Blocking negative instant messages — a strategy many adults would recommend — suggests defeat, they said.

"It seems like you gave up and they won," said a girl named Abby.

One boy said his parents would tell him to "walk away, but that advice doesn't really help me. If I walk away, they can easily find another way to bully me."

Abby said her father regularly monitors her MySpace page to make sure she is steering clear of trouble. She knows girls, though, who have been caught up in spats on MySpace. In one case, she said, a girl made a printout of the spiteful comments exchanged online and brought the printout to school to show other kids.

The girls involved were friends, Abby said, noting, "Girls have a lot more drama than guys."

Communicating online definitely has its pitfalls, the youths agreed. "You can't hear a person's tone or reaction," Abby said.

And kids, when they're instant messaging each other, think that because they are trading barbs online, rather than at school, "there will be no consequences," a boy named Darren said.

And sometimes, said a boy named Eric, a person sending out messages over the Internet can get carried away. "You want to look bigger than the other person," he said. "You want to win the fight."

Statements easily are taken out of context. Messages easily are misconstrued.

A girl named Megan said she's endured an instant-messaging battle with a friend that she wishes never had happened, and hopes never will be repeated. "I don't want to get into anything like that ever again," she said.

Middle school is hard enough, but in this new world, bullies have new weapons at their disposal. "It's not easy being a teenager nowadays with all the stuff that's going on," Megan said.

The youths said they wished adults understood this fact, but didn't try to punish them for it, by taking away their computers and cell phones when problems arise.

They said positive encouragement would work better than punishment. And they said lessons on bullying and cyber-bullying aren't going to solve all of the problems.

"We have to mature and decide when enough's enough," Eric said.

Document the bullying
Officer Berlin said that when he talks to parents about cyber-threats, he emphasizes "honest, open communication, and good, solid parenting skills."

The mother of a Lancaster County teen who was bullied online said in an e-mail that it is "critical" that parents talk to their children about cyber-bullying. This mom, who didn't want to be identified because she continued to worry for her child, strongly urged other teens to tell their parents about any threatening e-mails or text messages they receive.

And she advised parents to make printouts of malicious messages, and document the bullying, as best they can, in case it escalates.

Schools, in the past, have been reluctant to intervene in cyber-bullying incidents that occur after school hours and beyond school property. Uncertainty over schools' jurisdiction in such incidents is a "big gray area," Berlin said.

Sen. Orie is a co-sponsor of legislation that would require school districts to adopt policies prohibiting bullying. She said the state Department of Education has indicated that bullying by electronic means would be covered by these policies. Schools would be empowered to act when bullying disrupted the educational process, she said.

The Penn Manor School District already has a cyber-bullying policy in place. Adopted in May 2006, this policy forbids all forms of bullying and cyber-bullying. It encourages students to report cyber-bullying incidents to school officials, and requires school employees to investigate such complaints.

Darrin Donmoyer, Student Assistance Program team leader for Penn Manor School District, said the policy — which other schools, just beginning to grapple with the issue, have asked to see — enables district officials to act when the fallout from a cyber-bullying incident is felt in school.

The technology has changed so much that school districts, like parents and children, have to adapt. These days, Donmoyer said, "there are so many other ways to harass people than there were."

---

Suzanne Cassidy is a staff writer for the Sunday News. Her e-mail address is scassidy@lnpnews.com.