If you think that only kids that are the victim of cyberbullying, think again. Teachers can also become the targets of cyberbullying by their own students. In particular, Facebook hate groups aimed at a particular teacher are increasingly common.

In 2007, a Florida high schooler was suspended for creating a Facebook group called "Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever met!” She sued the school, claiming that creating the group was within her legal free speech rights. She won.

It may be legal, but it’s not nice – and it’s not smart, either.

We all have heard the old adage that bullies only pick on others because they feel bad about themselves. But when it comes to cyberbullying, that may not actually be as true as we thought.

A recent study from the Journal of Adolescent Health found that victims of cyberbullying are more depressed than the kids who bully them, while studies of traditional face-to-face schoolyard bullying show an equal rate of depression among bullies and victims.

Alexis Pilkington. Robyn Nixon. Phoebe Prince. These teenagers left their marks on the world by taking their own lives in the wake of relentless cyberbullying.

The response to cyberbullying has been slow and gradual, but many big entities are finally beginning to realize that cyberbullying is a serious problem that is not going to go away on its own.

Facebook seems to have more of an interest these days in keeping its users, particularly children and teens, safe from social networking dangers such as cyberbullying and child predators.

In April a revamped Safety Center appeared on Facebook, with targeted safety information for parents, educators, teens, and law enforcement.

After the Facebook-related deaths of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall in March and 18-year-old Nona Belomisoff in May,

The cyberbullying-induced suicide of Massachusetts teen Phoebe Prince in March put cyberbullying back in the spotlight. Parents need to talk to their kids, not only about what to do if they are cyberbullied themselves but also how to stop it from happening to their peers and how to avoid becoming cyberbullies themselves.

Cyberbullying is any form of harassment, humiliation, or abuse that takes place using technology and Internet connectivity. It can, and often does, start with seemingly innocuous things like fowarding an embarrassing picture of a classmate or leaving an off-the-cuff mean comment on someone’s Facebook Wall. It can escalate to more serious offenses like impersonating someone else on the Internet or setting up a website designed to make fun of them.

Cyberbullying is when a child is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated or embarrassed using technology like text messaging, email, instant messaging, blogs, websites and online games.  This isn’t the bullying we experienced as a child.  Unlike traditional bullying, there is no refuge for the victims because cyberbullying goes on 24-hours a day.  It invades a child’s home and is often unrelenting.  One third of American teens and one sixth of tweens have been cyberbullied – that’s 13 million kids! Examples of cyberbullying include:

• Threatening, malicious or harassing language aimed at another person

• Sending or forwarding (or posting online) pictures of another person via text message, email, instant messenger with the intent of humiliating or embarrassing them