Cyber bullying is bullying through email, instant messaging, in a chat room, on a Web Site, or through digital messages or images sent to a cellular phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) (Kowalski et al, 2008).

Cyber bullying, like traditional bullying, involves a negative action that is often repeated, and involves an imbalance of power.

With cyber bullying, an individual may have more power just by being able to instantly share negative comments or photographs with a multitude of people via email, instant messaging, text messaging, or through Web Site posts.

Cyber bullying may involve several individuals targeting one individual, or a more popular student targeting a less popular classmate.

Cyber bullying is a particularly insidious and devastating form of bullying:

• Cyber bullying frequently happens outside the school setting and may be difficult for educators to observe.
• One cyber bullying attack may have exponential exposure; one embarrassing photo or one degrading email message can be instantly forwarded to an entire class or grade level.
• Students may feel invisible or anonymous online leading to a greater willingness to engage in negative actions.
• Students who cyber bully have no opportunity to witness the emotional distress their comments may inflict.
• There is no escape. When a student is cyber bullied, an incident can happen whenever someone turns on his or her computer or goes online. This often happens at home at any time of the day or night.

There is a bright spot, however. While direct evidence may be hard to obtain in many traditional forms of bullying, cyber bullying typically involves a form of communication that can be saved and printed from a computer or saved on a cell phone. Such obvious evidence can be helpful when intervening in a cyber bullying incident.