• Threatening or harassing comments made via instant messages, mobile phone text messages, blogs or forming hate groups (e.g., creating an “I Hate Molly” group on MySpace and getting friends to join the group and all make derogatory remarks about the target).  Recently teachers have also become targets for Facebook.com hate groups
• Lying or exaggerating about someone and sending the fabrication to an entire list of friends
• Exclusion (removing an individual from a friends list, taking them out of “top friends” rankings, removal from IM “Buddy List”
• “Outing” someone to others by disclosing a secret online that was shared in confidence offline
• Posting private or embarrassing photos of someone without their knowledge or consent – which are easy to capture with hidden cell phones (or not-so-hidden phones while the target is drunk)

What Parents Can Do

• Pay attention to your child by asking open instead of closed questions and really listening more than questioning, interrupting, lecturing or scolding.  Become genuinely curious about their inner world, and don’t trivialize what may seem like trivial problems to you with comments such as “Oh, you’ll forget all about that soon”, or “You’re beautiful on the inside.  Don’t pay attention to what others think”.  These are well-intended, but don’t really help the child feel heard and understood when they feel ostracized by others.
• Sharing activities while learning something from your child can be a good icebreaker and distracts from awkward silences.  For example, “Can you show me how you add a background and song to your MySpace profile?”  “What are your favorites?”  Consistently modeling integrity, self-respect, and ethical and assertive behaviors are most important of all.