Cyberbullying is the use of mobile phones, instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to harass, threaten or intimidate someone.

Cyberbullying is often done by children, who have increasingly early access to these technologies. The problem is compounded by the fact that a bully can hide behind an electronic veil, disguising his or her true identity. This secrecy makes it difficult to trace the source and encourages bullies to behave more aggressively than they might face-to-face.

Eldene Primary School 'will take cyber-bullying seriously and will investigate any occurrences following the school’s disciplinary procedures.' (E-Safety policy 2010). This includes incidents that occur outside of school hours involving current pupils.

Collecting Evidence

If your child receives an unkind or threatening message on their instant chat or social networking page (eg. their Facebook wall), it is important to print a record of it, as it could easily be deleted or lost.

Use the 'screen grab' function on most PCs to print off an exact copy of what you can see on your computer monitor:

1) Hold down 'CTRL' on the left side of your computer keyboard. At the same time, press the 'Print Screen' button, which may just say 'Prt Scr'. It is usually on the right hand side of your keyboard.

2) Your computer has now created a copy of whatever is on your monitor screen at the time, including any instant chat messages. Open a blank Word document and click on 'Edit' and then 'Paste (or hold down 'CTRL' and press letter 'V').

3) The screen grab will appear on your Word document, and can be enlarged then printed.

Here is an example of a Facebook screen grab: