Internet becoming new playground for bullies.

Byline: Jennifer Torres, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Jan. 2--His Internet profile says he is 17 and a student at a San Joaquin County high school. Dozens of friends have left messages on his personal Web site wishing him a Merry Christmas - but one posted a picture of a naked man. In his profile, the student expresses love for his family and for his girlfriend - but he also writes in bold, red type that he's sick of people saying he lost a fight. The communications technologies increasingly popular among high school students offer a way to keep in touch with friends and publicize events, users say. But, they acknowledge, technology also has created ways to slip gossip out of the hallways and drag bullying off the schoolyard - and onto home computers. Serena Madera, 15, said she has had a profile on the networking Web site MySpace.com for several months. The free site allows its more than 40 million users to create profiles, leave comments on friends' profiles and maintain online journals. Madera, a sophomore at Stagg High School in Stockton, said she and most of the people she knows use MySpace to chat with friends. But sometimes, she said, the chatter gets out of hand. "They'll call each other names," she said. "You have this one Norteno saying something to this other guy, and then everyone knows about it." Danielle Torres, a junior at Edison High School in Stockton and a MySpace.com user for about three years, agreed. "They'll talk about parties they go to or just gossip," Torres said. "People I've known say it's too much drama." Parry Aftab, an international Internet lawyer, child advocate and executive director of the nonprofit WiredSafety.org, said children - like adults - have used technology to intimidate one another nearly as long as that technology has been available. Often, she said, children are reluctant to tell their parents they are being bullied online, because they worry their parents will make the situation worse or will restrict computer access. But while it can be harder for adults to detect, she said, cyberbullying can be just as damaging as offline gossip and harassment. "Bullying in real life makes you scared," Aftab said. "Cyberbullying makes you paranoid. You can't hide from it. You can be at Grandma's house in Florida, and it's going to follow you when you turn on your computer." Roseann Clark, a spokeswoman for the Stockton Police Department, said officers rarely receive calls from parents worried about Internet-based threats and harassment. About a month ago, Clark said, a parent called her, concerned that a boy wrote on his MySpace page that he hated a group of girls at his school.

"When it's young kids in an 'I don't like you, you don't like me' situation," Clark said, she would recommend informal mediation. If more-serious threats surface, the police would investigate, she said.

Although online comments often spread quickly through campuses, schools have limited legal ability to police cyberbullying, Aftab said.

Dianne Barth, spokeswoman for the Stockton Unified School District, said campuses in the district can at least block school access to sites where abuse occurs. MySpace.com users must be at least 14, and operators offer ways for parents to delete their children's profiles or inappropriate material that might appear on them. Wendell Haughton, a 2005 graduate of Tokay High School in Lodi, said he uses MySpace.com to reconnect with friends of whom he had lost track. While he was in high school, he said, most Internet posts were harmless. "It didn't get out of hand a lot," he said. "But a lot of people see what's out there, and any little thing could become huge." Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at (209) 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com

Copyright (c) 2006, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

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