Recently there has been a growing amount of interest in the subject of cyberbullying and what schools are doing, or not doing, to tackle this burgeoning problem. As it is impossible to address a problem without first recognising its existence the primary task for the educational community is to ensure that all teachers understand what it is, and at least the basics of the platforms used.

The Education Guardian on the 28th January this year reported that one third of teachers struggle with technology, so it should come as no surprise that so many of their number remain blissfully ignorant of the threats that run in tandem with the positive aspects of computer, video and communications systems in the modern school.

When the subject is raised initially, my experience has been that teachers think in terms of offensive verbal or text messaging, and are surprised and sometimes shocked when they hear of the actuality. The cyberbully is spoilt for choice when it comes to this particular variant of bullying: defamatory blogs (weblogs); polling sites; bulletin boards; chat rooms; game rooms; manipulation and distribution of photographs or humiliating videos on Myspace, Bebo and Youtube; the list goes on. The impact upon targets is compounded by the intrusiveness of the medium, the perceived anonymity of the perpetrator and the expansion of the audience.

Whereas in the past home has been a refuge from the bully, modern technology allows far greater access to the target through home computers and the ever present mobile phone. Meanwhile the identity of the bully can easily be cloaked through the use of pseudonyms or alternative identities so that the target doesn't even know who s/he is up against. This leads some targets to distance themselves from even their close friends in response to a growing sense of paranoia. The platforms used in cyberbullying afford the opportunity to expand the audience, for instance by circulating images to other students or putting video images on Youtube, and it is even possible to encourage others to join in the process through the likes of polling sites etc. At this point perhaps it's appropriate to point out that the target of school cyberbullying isn't always a student - when did you last google your school, or your own name, or check out ratemyteachers.co.uk?