An argument on MySpace escalated recently to a confrontation in a Caernarvon Township parking lot.

Three girls — a 17-year-old and two 14-year-olds — allegedly told the person who was driving their car to run over a 16-year-old girl, State Police at Ephrata said. Their target was a girl they'd been fighting with online.

In Manheim, two girls, ages 12 and 13, recently wrote on the social networking Web site MySpace that they wanted to shoot a 14-year-old fellow middle school student in the head.

These latest two incidents, while more extreme than typical, are evidence, police say, that cyberbullying is not only rising but intensifying.

It's not going to vanish either, says Elizabethtown Police Cpl. Gordon Berlin, who gives presentations on cyberbullying and Internet safety.

And, "we are starting to see more actual threats such as: 'If I see her in school, I'm going to beat her up.'"

Cyberbullying takes many forms, but simply: It involves sending threats and or hurtful messages through a cell phone, instant messenger or on a social networking Web site such as MySpace or Facebook.

No teenager from here to South Africa is immune, according to a bevy of news articles found online.

It's made national news.

Last October, 13-year-old Megan Meier died after hanging herself.

The depressed teen from Missouri allegedly had been the victim of cyber bullying by the mother of a former friend.

And, a boy named Ryan Halligan from Vermont killed himself in 2002 after being cyberbullied.

Here in Lancaster County, police and school officials say most of the cyberbullying comes from teenage girls. Middle school is the worst, but it can start in elementary school.

Noelle Martin, a junior at Conestoga Valley High School, is in the district's Ophelia Club; she mentors fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Leola Elementary School on bullying.

They tell her: "It's a lot of 'So-and-so said that I did this.' And 'So-and-so said that I am fat and I'm ugly,'" Martin said. "It's more harassment over your physical appearance."

For some, blowing off the comments comes easily.

"But one girl was really mad and really hurt. She said, 'I never felt that bad about myself until they said that. I never looked at myself in that way,'" Martin said.

When girls bully, they engage in what psychologists call relational aggression, a covert form of bullying.

Often, girls pretend they are someone's friend and spread rumors, write nasty comments and call each other names online.

It can take a toll.

One 17-year-old Lancaster County girl said she was the victim of cyberbullying in middle school. On America Online instant messenger, girls called her vulgar names and spread rumors about her.

At the request of the school district, the New Era has kept the girl anonymous.

"It hurts; It can really affect the person," she said.

And most kids don't tell their parents about what's happening. They are afraid their parents will react and forbid them from being online.

That won't stop it, she said. Kids can always find a way.

Many parents don't even know their kids have a MySpace site. And many are also surprised when they learn what their children are saying online, Berlin said.

Jeremy Henry, Hempfield School District's resource officer, said that he has dealt with 82 incidents of harassment at the high school this school year, and most of them have involved cell phones or MySpace.

"I've had kids sit and tell me, 'It's not real.' 'Oh, that's just on the Internet. It doesn't mean anything,'" Henry said.

It means something to their victims.

Cyberbullies may not see their victims when they attack, but the toll is "devastating" counselors say —especially when the cyberbully is someone they thought was a friend.

Victims can develop depression and trust issues. The victims also find no reprieve because the intimidation doesn't end outside of school, said Brenda Walker, a guidance counselor from Landisville Middle School in the Hempfield School District.

Prompting the fearless bravado is the virtual anonymity behind it. A user can whip up a fake profile in a few minutes.

"You can't see their reaction; you don't see the fear or the tears," Walker said.

There are other consequences.

Kids (and adults) can face criminal charges ranging from harassment by a communication device and terroristic threats (such as the case with the Manheim Central Middle School girls), a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to five years in prison.

It can also become a third-degree felony if it leads to, for example, the evacuation of a public building, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said.

On the other side of the county, the girls who initiated the altercation in the Goodwill parking lot in Morgantown are being cited for disorderly conduct, Trooper Chad Roberts of State Police at Ephrata said.

Stedman said in an e-mail that "law enforcement has to be responsive to this relatively new arena for crimes."

Cyber threats can feel more "disturbing" than those made in person, Stedman wrote.

And, he added that law enforcement will take threats seriously no matter where they are made.

"... and we will do what we can to make sure we obtain justice for the victims."

He might get an extra hand in that from state lawmakers.

Republican state Sen. Jane Orie, of Allegheny and Butler counties, is co-sponsor of a bill that would make cyberbullying and cyberstalking criminal offenses in Pennsylvania.

The law would also rewrite the school code to require that school districts adopt policies prohibiting cyberbullying.


CYBER TIPS FOR PARENTS
• Supervise use of computer and place into a common area.

• Learn about the Web sites.
• Talk to your children about cyberbullying and encourage them to talk to you if they feel threatened while on the Internet.
• Limit time allowed online.
• Ask your child to sign a pledge about online safety.


Staff writer Robyn Meadows can be reached at rmeadows@LNPnews.com or 481-6025.