A middle school girl got teased on the Internet while at home.
So her mother tried to protect her by typing back.
Bad move, said Anna Bible, coordinator for safe and drug-free schools in Carroll County.
The next day at school, the student faced the consequences, Bible said, with even more intense bullying.
Bible and Carroll County sheriff?s deputies told about 60 parents, at a summit at Winters Mill High School on cyberbullying and Internet predators, how to avoid such bullying and limit their children?s vulnerability.
Parents scribbled on note pads as deputies plugged them into the lingo their kids use when chatting with friends and strangers on the Internet. Deputies said “PANB,” for instance, means “parents are nearby.”
The seminar also taught parents that it can take less than an hour for a predator to find a child?s name and address using the scant information listed on profile pages on MySpace and Facebook, two of the most popular networking sites.
The school system is beginning to incorporate its cyberbullying presentation into the curriculum, primarily health classes in middle school, where cyberbullying is fiercest, said Dana Falls, head of Carroll?s student services.
“Their maturity doesn?t match their technological skills,” he said of middle school students.
Several disagreements that began online have escalated this school year into fistfights, said Lt. Phil Kasten, spokesman for the sheriff?s office.
About a third of children are exposed to sexually explicit material on the Internet, and one in seven is sexually solicited, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In Carroll, there have been about 150 online solicitations in the past five years, said Detective Cpl. Jesse Dimura. And 12 of those solicitors traveled to meet the children, Dimura said.
“We have seen an increase where the cyberbullying at home bleeds into schools,” Falls said. “I?ve seen them say some pretty cruel things that they wouldn?t say face to face.”
