In the last few years, cyber-bullying has captured an enormous amount of global media attention, including coverage of a local case in St. Charles County.

Cyber bullying is harassment through electronic devices such as cell phones, websites, blogs, chat rooms, IM and email. Unlike conventional bullying, cyber bullying gives the perpetrator the advantage of anonymity, enabling the bully to torment a victim without actually coming face to face.

“There is no physical threat to the bully who is perpetuating it because they are not coming into direct contact with their victims,” said Pearl Serota, a psychiatrist specializing in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. “It is more humiliating, because the information can go viral, and the perception is that absolutely everyone knows about it. It is easier to type hateful words rather than saying hateful things to someone’s face.”

The local case centered on Dardenne Prairie teenager Megan Meier, who committed suicide at the age of 13 in 2006. After an investigation into the matter, her suicide was attributed to cyber-bullying through the social networking website MySpace. Lori Drew, the mother of a friend of Meier, was indicted on the matter, but eventually acquitted.

Still, that doesn’t change the fact that people can hide behind the veil of the Internet to target specific individuals. In addition to MySpace, social networking websites such as Facebook provide people with the ability to form hate groups or events. Although Facebook has set up a button to report offensive groups and request their removal, the actual formation of these groups goes more or less unchecked. Imagine the humiliation of logging onto Facebook or MySpace and seeing a hate group targeted at one’s religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or another aspect of identity, and the severity of the issue should become obvious.

“When people face or IM chat with each other they aren’t afraid to say words that they normally wouldn’t say. They’ll rudely comment on other people’s pictures because they think they’re being funny when really it’s not. They could seriously be hurting the person’s feelings and they just don’t get to see the immediate reaction,” said Daniella Yasinev, a senior at Horton Watkins Ladue High School.

While anonymity is a major reason cyber-bullying is on the rise, the rate at which information travels online is also a key factor. Cyber-bullying allows a person to spread information with just a few clicks of a button.

According to Serota, studies have shown that children who have faced cyber bullying are nearly two times as likely to commit suicide. Other studies report that 35 percent of children have been threatened while online, and 42 percent have experienced cyber-bullying firsthand. Eighty-five percent of middle school students polled last year said that they had been cyber bullied at least once, and 70 percent of 13-to-16- year-olds said they had cyber-bullied someone else.

“Cyber-bullying is worse [than regular bullying] because people are more emotional than physical, even though they might not be willing to admit it, and words hurt more then physically hitting someone,” Yasinev said.

From a religious perspective, cyber-bullying outright defies the laws of the Torah. Specifically, Jews are told to refrain from speaking lashon hara, or evil slander. When you spread a rumor or a mean picture of someone online, it is considered both cyber-bullying and lashon hara. In addition, Leviticus 19:18 tells Jews that everyone has an obligation to look out for their fellow man when it says, “V’ahavta L’Reacha Kamocha,” or “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

“One of the things you hear from people who have been the victim of such a rumor is that the hurt is more [on the Internet], because so many have the ability to see it and it’s so hard to respond to it. The commandment against lashon hara is trying to prevent such ill feelings towards one another,” said Amanda Drazen, a junior at Block Yeshiva High School.

In order to help stop cyber-bullying, teens should develop a relationship with an adult they trust and ask for help if they feel threatened. Individuals can also use the privacy settings included on most social networking sites to control who can contact them. Serota feels that if you know someone who is being bullied, you have an obligation to stand up for the victim or inform an adult who can help.

“Teens should never encourage the bullying behavior by forwarding on hurtful messages, laughing at inappropriate jokes or content, or otherwise silently condoning the bullying behavior. If you do nothing, that is perpetuating the bullying behavior,” Serota said.

Bullying can take place anywhere, at anytime and in any shape or form. Bullying has been around for generations but this generation has utilized technology to expand their reach and the extent of their harm on others.