Bullying Goes Hi-tech
互動天地
Bullying[威嚇] among schoolchildren is nothing new. Calling someone names， stealing their possessions， threatening them and even beating them up are all well-established bullying techniques. Yet for young people today， there is a relatively new form of bullying which can occur even when the bullies are nowhere near their victims—and it can have equally， if not more devastating， effects.
Cyber-bullying is one of the downsides of new technology， and involves using devices like mobile phones and computers. Cyber-bullies can strike at any time no matter where they， or their victims， are. So it is possible to cyber-bully someone within the safety of their own home. A staggering 22 percent of young people in the UK claim to have suffered from cyber-bullying.
Not only are cyber-bullies harder to avoid， they are also harder to catch. It is all too easy to send an anonymous[匿名的] threat by text on a pay-as-you-go phone with an unknown number. It takes no time at all to set up a false Facebook， Twitter， blog or social network account and to post an insulting message. And， if you know how to hide your IP address， you can upload an offensive video to a website like YouTube and your victim wouldn’t know who to blame.