This article was shared with me by a member of this board.  I thought it may do some good to post it, in hopes it will make some people think twice befor posting.

Lisa

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CYBER BULLIES

Cyberbullying is becoming a major problem on the internet.  It is something
that is not understood by many people until they actually come face-to-face
with it.  Because bullying on the internet tends to be more psychological
than physical, many people are apt to dismiss it out of hand.  "Sticks and
stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" does not apply here.
  Words are the very medium of the internet and they can be used with
devastating effect.

It's not also limited to children bullying children, either.  Many adults
have become victims of cyberbullies as well.  They're bewildered to find
themselves singled out, treated differently from other people in their
online group, marginalized, ignored, sidelined, overruled.  They'll find
that everything they say is being twisted or distorted.  Their reputation is
trashed.  It doesn't help to quit a group and walk away from the situation. 
The bullies will often follow them online from forum to forum, group to
group, chat to chat.

It doesn't take much to become the victim of a cyberbully.  For children,
the bullying often starts in the playground and is taken online.  For
adults, the bullying often starts online, usually with an innocent remark
that is taken the wrong way.  As internet users, our communication with each
other is truncated because it is limited to the written word, and possibly a
few emoticons.  Sometimes someone is perceived as a cyberbully when a remark
is taken out of context.  Then a flame war results.

Either way it starts, cyberbullying can morph easily into cyberstalking and
even stalking in the real world.  It may get to the point where third
parties are required to become involved.  Legal intervention may also become
necessary.

Even if it doesn't get that far, the bullying can have devastating effects
on it's victims.  They'll manifest symptoms such as stress, tension
headaches, migraines, sleeplessness, nightmares, irritability, poor
concentration, depression, shattered self-confidence, low self-esteem and
more.  In the long term, it may result in the victim requiring physical or
mental health care, or possibly both.

Why do cyberbullies act the way they do?

Boiled down to it's essence, bullying is about power.  A cyberbully wants to
put their victim in distress,  Therefore the bully will embark upon a series
of repeated, intentionally cruel actions against the victim that are
intended to hurt or humiliate them.  Reacting to the bully only serves to
confirm their feeling of power.  Their online mission has succeeded in their
own minds.

Many cyberbullies work to convince their online peers to exclude or reject a
victim.  Their mission is to cut the victim off from their social
connections.  Once the person leaves or is 'banished' from the group, this
serves to confirm the cyberbully's sense of power.

The internet tends to provide people with a false sense of security, and
thus makes it easier for people to do things they think they can 'get away
with.'  People will say things online that they would never say to another
person face-to-face.  They have a sense of being removed from their actions
and the people they are tormenting.

Bullies bully because they can.  They've gotten away with that type of
behaviour in the past and so they keep on repeating it.  Unfortunately many
victims never speak up.  Many other people are also afraid to speak up
against the bully.  They are afraid that if they do, that will put them in
the cyberbully's radar and they will be the next person to be victimized. 
This reinforces the bully's belief that they are untouchable.

How to deal with internet bullies

Usually the best response is no response at all.  If you react with anger,
then the bully wins the round.  If you react at all, the bully wins - they
want the attention.  Ignore them long enough and they'll do either one of
two things.
They'll get bored and go away
They'll increase their efforts to get your attention.  Hopefully they'll get
to the point where they do something so colossally stupid that you can
report to their ISP and get them kicked off the internet.
Don't post a long dramatic good-bye message to your internet friends.  That
is blatantly out-and-out telling the cyberbully that they've won.  You
validate their actions and make them feel like they can get away with more
of the same behaviours.

Document every action against you.  Create a private space online that
exists solely for the purpose of collecting their mean-spirited posts,
insults, slander, etc.  If need be, you have evidence to back you up should
you have to go legal on them.

If you run a message board and see a cyberbully victimizing someone on your
message boards, don't let the message stay on the boards.  If necessary,
moderate the cyberbully so that they know that they are being watched and
documented.

The law and cyberbullies

Different parts of the world have different methods for dealing with
cyberbullies.  Unfortunately in many instances it is difficult to get law
enforcement officials and ISPs to take cases of cyberbullying seriously.

In Canada it is a crime to communicate repeatedly with someone if your
correspondence causes them to fear for their own safety and the safety of
others.  Many other countries and ISPs do take communicated threats very
seriously.  In one instance that I know of personally, a person threatened
to send someone else's computer a virus and then followed through on it. 
Even though the incident happened across international borders, the bully's
connection to the internet was terminated by their ISP.

In many places it is also a crime to publish defamatory libel.  In Canada
that means publishing anything (this includes posts on message boards)
without lawful justification or excuse that is intended to insult a person
or damage their reputation by exposing them to hatred, contempt or ridicule.
  A defamatory libel may be expressed directly or by insinuation or irony.

A cyberbully may also be committing a Human Rights violation if their
bullying spreads hate or discrimination based on race, national or ethnic
origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status,
family status or disability.