By Scott Brinton
Tina Sanacore is a parent volunteer with Child Abuse Prevention Services in Roslyn whose children attend Mepham High School. Sanacore spoke last Thursday during a meeting of the three Merrick Elementary School District PTAs -- Birch, Chatterton and Levy-Lakeside.
Sanacore ran through a number of ways that kids use the Internet to hound other kids. For example, they might set up a Web site filled with hate messages about their victims. Or they might bombard their e-mail with nasty notes. If victims forward e-mail to their cell phones, they might wind up with a voice mailbox full of gibes.
Sanacore noted that 55 percent of middle-school students say they have been bullied or have bullied someone else in cyberspace. And, she said, "If it's happening on the Web, there's a good probability that it's happening at school."
Many children, however, never report being bullied in cyberspace, because they fear they'll lose their Internet privileges. Revoking the Internet privileges of a bullying victim would be about the worst thing a parent could do, Sanacore said. She instead recommended taking the following steps:
€Do not respond to the bully.
€Block the message sender.
€Save and print out messages.
€Report the bullying to the Internet service provider.
€Change your screen name.
€If you're in a chat room or on a Web site, leave it immediately.
€Contact police.
€Contact the FBI.
More information about Child Abuse Prevention Services can be found at www.capsli.org.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
