Hurtful names. Repeated harassment. Extreme embarrassment. As adults, we’ve learned to recognize the signs of bullying, but when it comes to cyberbullying, parents need to be extra vigilant. The widespread availability of the web and mobile phones have created a rich environment for cyberbullying (defined as using of digital media to repeatedly harass another person). Often it happens without any knowledge of school staff and/or parents.

Although it's difficult to watch your child try to deal with bullying, they don't have to go through it alone. You can offer support and help your child through this difficult situation using a variety of strategies. 

We live in an age that is entirely different from the era most of us grew up in.  If your child is old enough for a cell phone, chances are you remember things like playing your Atari before dinner and going outside to play only to be called in hours later once the sun was going down.  As technology is advancing, so are the ways for your child to get into trouble.  And while everyone else might be doing it, sexting is something you definitely don't want your child participating in.  

I was recently invited to be a guest blogger at uknowkids.com and I am honored, inspired, and grateful. Once I recognized the genius behind uknow.com and uknowkids.com, I immediately saw the urgency, importance, and inspiration of this powerful company to help kids. Knowledge is potential power but action is power.

Does your child bring a handheld device to school to access the Internet? Many kids aren't supposed to but do anyway, texting under their desk in Algebra and streaming music (with earbuds, of course) in study hall. But some schools are instructing, encouraging, and even begging their kids to bring out their devices and use them during school hours.

I recently caught up with an old friend, and between her three kids and my four, we certainly had a lot of back-to-school info to share with each other. Her daughter's school has a “bring your own device” policy this year. In short, there may not always be enough school computers for all kids all the time, so students are encouraged to bring their own devices to use at school.

Bullying is a really hot-button word, guaranteed to grab you (especially if you have kids of your own) by the collar and make you pay attention. I'll admit that headlines with the word “cyberbully” almost always catch my notice. Bullying both scares parents and mystifies them. Let's clear things up a little.

Parents – myself included – are apt to shrug off cyberbullying as just another iteration of the bullying you or I might have endured as kids. We turned out all right in spite of it, didn't we? But the truth is that cyberbullying is very different from anything we knew.

When you became a parent, nobody handed you an owners' manual.  From health to education to socialization, raising chidren today is hard enough without the spectre of cyberbullying looming over your heads.  The old days of classroom taunts and playground insults have exploded into the technical age, and today's children have a lot more to worry about.

This month Marco Viscomi, a 27-year-old college student from Canada, was indicted in federal court for using a computer virus to blackmail teenage sisters into producing child pornography – of themselves.

He struck up a conversation online with the 17-year-old and talked her into sending him some risqué photos, then downloading a file from him that turned out to be a virus. Then he told her that he would ruin her laptop and send the photos to her parents if she didn't make explicit videos with her 13-year-old sister.

Your teens know how to use the Internet. They've been using it since they were old enough to talk. But do they know how to use it responsibly, without compromising their safety or just plain being rude or irritating to others? If your teens are online, which they undoubtedly are, they need to be aware of committing these 10 Internet faux pas.

Cheating when I was in school usually involved sticking a tiny little crib sheet in your shoe, or taking peeks underneath your sleeve at the answers you'd penned on your arm that morning. But today many teens carry the ultimate technology in academic cheating: their mobile phones.

There are lots of ways to cheat using a cell phone. 16% of teens admit to looking for test answers on their phone, and 48.1% have looked up answers online. Kids can also sneak in modern-day crib sheets (pictures of their class notes,) text friends for answers, or take pictures of the test and send them to others to help them cheat.

Back to school shopping sure is different than when I was a kid. The most high-tech item on my list was maybe a graphing calculator.

Now many schools are embracing new technology and running with it. Teachers send out class updates on Twitter and iPads are regularly used in the classroom, even for preschoolers. Maybe tablets and smart phones aren't on the official school list, but they're probably on your child's wish list for back to school.

Maybe you don't know what a “dumb phone” is, but your teens certainly do – and they don't want one.

One of my closest girlfriends hasn't upgraded to a smart phone yet: her trusty old flip phone serves her just fine. She does find herself several times a day, however, constantly apologizing for her lack of connectivity.

If we're in a group and someone says, “quick, grab your phone and take a picture!” or “get on Facebook to show me some pictures of your new niece,” she has to shrug and say, “Sorry, I can't. I have a dumb phone.”

There's no end to the functionality of a smart phone. It's easy to dismiss your child's requests (or desperate pleas) for a smart phone without really thinking about it. But here are 4 really worthwhile uses for a smart phone that every parent can appreciate.

1. GPS. Kids get lost, and GPS isn't just for cars. Wherever they are, GPS helps them find their way home. And there are services you can subscribe to that will leverage the GPS

I'll admit it. Smartphones are pretty addictive. They're fun to use, make it easy to stay in touch with anybody no matter where you are, and can do just about everything. I'm pretty sure you could spend a whole day on the couch without ever getting up except to go to the bathroom and eat – and maybe your teen has.

Have you seen your texting teenager and wondered whether they're really addicted to their smartphone?

Does your teen have a smart phone? You've probably noticed that it makes a teenager's life a lot different than when we were kids.

No more asking to use the house phone at a friend's house to call home –  just text mom to ask her if it's okay to spend the night. No need to plan a night out – just check in on FourSquare and find out where everybody is. And that cute guy in Spanish class? You can get the inside scoop on him on Facebook without even talking to him.

With the school year just around the corner, parents are busy getting ready. There are school clothes to buy, new backpacks to fill – but are also you taking the time to bully-proof your child?

Cyberbullying is present in any school: public or private, rural or urban, high school or elementary school. Help to avoid or lessen the impact of cyberbullying on your child with these 10 skills. 

1. Confidence. Identifying and being proud of his personal strengths will give your child a good feeling about himself that will make bullies less likely to target him.

With only two days left, make sure you RSVP for our #bk2school Twitter Party! Our host, Tim Woda, will be giving back to school tips to parents and discussing hot topics including cyberbullying, sexting, and SWAT-ting. We are also giving away cash prizes. The person who refers the most followers will receive a $100 gift card to Staples.

British Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington is swearing off Twitter during this year's London Olympics because she “doesn't need the stress” of people who post rude, insensitive, or cyberbullying comments.

In her own words, Adlington describes how “most things that I read about myself are not swimming related. They are to do with how I look, which has nothing to do with my performance in the pool.” 

She enjoys the supportive messages, but the inevitable odd comments makes the whole Twitter scene not worth it for her when she needs to focus 100% on her swimming in the Olympic games.

uKnow.com is very excited about throwing our first Twitter party!  Since children are going back to school in a month we thought it would be the perfect time to get adults to start talking about how we can ensure kids safety this year.  Our host, Internet safety and mobile expert, Tim Woda will provide tips that will help parents stay engaged and discuss current topics including sexting and cyberbullying.  In addition to coming to a fabulous virtual party, we are giving away $275 in gift cards to Staples!

Over the years, I have seen many YouTube videos and unfortunately, the one that is permanently cemented in my mind is “Racist White Teen Girls.”  This video is one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen.  The girls who speak in it are young, impulsive and troubled.

Do you know what your school's policy is on bullying? Every school has one, but policies vary from district to district in how cyberbullying is defined and how it is punished.

Although there are almost as many types of policies as there are schools, a popular one is the zero tolerance policy. “Zero tolerance” means that any and all violations of the policy is grounds for the harshest punishments a school can dole out: namely suspension and expulsion. 

Zero tolerance policies used to be reserved for bringing drugs or weapons to school, two offenses that require the removal of the offending student because he or she is endangering the whole student body.