There’s a war of words brewing, with several Internet safety organizations, researchers, and social-networking companies on one side and some state attorneys general on the other.

Earlier this month, the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, run out of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, issued a report stating that Internet predator danger to kids is not as high as some have claimed. The report was immediately criticized by a number of attorneys general including Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania. And on Monday, an Internet safety organization in Oregon published a study that claims that data from press releases on Corbett’s own Web site fail to back up his claims about Internet dangers

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Parents and children hear frequent warnings about sexual predators on the Internet, but children are much more likely to receive taunting text messages or have peers spread malicious rumors about them online than they are to have an adult stranger seek sex with them, according to a new report on Internet safety.

The report released this month, called Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies, said bullying and harassment are the most frequent threats students face online. It said estimates of the problem vary widely but cited research showing 43 percent of middle school youths experienced what could be called cyberbullying.

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I REFER to media reports about cyber-bullying, where youths and children use social- networking websites as a platform from which to launch attacks on peers.

The purpose of such sites is to facilitate networking between people, and hence should not be misused.

A survey carried out last month revealed that a quarter of cyber-bullying victims in Singapore are students.

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I recently received an email correspondence from a parent in response to a post about  Internet Safety. It was written by a mother who has become an Internet safety advocate as a result of the nightmare which her son endured as a victim of a cyber bullying incident on MySpace.

She has granted me permission to share her email and her son’s story in the hope that it brings awareness to the subject of cyberbullying and helps to prevent such incidences from happening to someone else.

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On January 1, 2009, California joined the growing number of states that have passed laws against Cyber Bullying. The School Cyber Bullying Law (AB 86) allows school officials to suspend or expel students for Cyber Bullying, or harassment and intimidation via the Internet.

Today’s bully has a new playground; computers, cell phones and social networking sites. What was once known as teasing face to face, playing practical jokes, and making prank phone calls has evolved into a generation of bullies that hides behind the veil of computer screens and cell phones.

Creators of the renowned children’s book series, Temptation of a Generation, have released their third book that tackles the tough issues today’s pre-teens face with technology.

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Law enforcement officials say cyber bullying, which is also taunting among kids on the world wide web, is just as common as bullying you’d see here on the playground.

And many times it goes unreported.

That’s why parents are being encouraged to step in and monitor their kids’ online habits.

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Cyberbullying took the blame in the deaths of two young teens within the past few years, and parents, teachers, victims and i-SAFE want cyberbullying stopped.

Kilmer Middle School in Vienna presented an Internet safety video produced by i-SAFE, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of children and teenagers. Four drama club students re-enacted true-life events that had devastating results. In one act, students recreated the series of events that led to the 2003 suicide of 13-year-old Ryan Halligan who was allegedly prompted to kill himself by an online “friend.”

“Cyberbullying can have very serious consequences,” Barbara Appling, Kilmer English teacher and i-SAFE assembly coordinator, said.

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