More than one in every eight children has been bullied by email or text message, psychologists have claimed.

The phenomenon - dubbed 'cyber-bullying' - is becoming more common, with girls most likely to be targeted.

A five-year survey of almost 15,227 children aged 11 to 13 found a steady increase in the number receiving nasty or threatening emails and texts.

Twenty-one per cent of girls were victims of cyber-bullying last year, while ten per cent of boys were victimised.

Fifteen per cent of pupils reported suffering harassment via text or the Internet.

The survey was carried out by psychologists Nathalie Noret of York St John University College and Ian Rivers, of Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh.

Back to the good news for a moment. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported back in 1999 that 1 in 5 children aged 10 to 17 had been solicited for sex online. You've seen that statistic repeated again and again in online safety marketing campaigns. Well, things are a bit better now. A telephone survey conducted last year found that number shrunk to 1 in 7.

The good news ends there, however. The study found that the most serious kinds of solicitations -- those that involve a predator attempting to make real-world contact with a victim -- have not declined.

Also in the survey, one-third of children reported they were exposed to sexual material online, compared to 25 percent five years ago.

And there was an increase in the number of kids reporting cyberbullying -- from 6 percent 5 years ago to 9 percent today.

Blogs let students engage in a form of journalism. Their journals work best when they become sustained conversations - when students write and reflect about a particular topic or issue over time and when that writing inspires response from an audience. The conversation might incorporate the works of others, breaking news in the form of newsfeeds, and students linking to and responding to the external resources.

When it works well as an educational tool, blogging involves students in content, critical reading, and thoughtful, reflective writing.

David Warlick, educational technology consultant, author and director of the Landmark Project, sees blogs as strategies for encouraging writing. When blogs are effective, students write for an audience and receive authentic response.

Warlick notes that blog writing might occasionally warrant a more casual approach. Traditional writing assignments are "for teacher's eyes only. We are teaching rules and syntax and students have to follow rules. Blogging is much more about communication and kids are all about communication."

Researchers who have studied teenage internet use have discovered websites where children vote for the ugliest, most unpopular or fattest girl in their school. "As teenagers increasingly turn to blogs, some of these diaries have become a hotbed of cruelties," Aftab added.

On one popular website, a 17-year-old boy invited his friends to "take a moment and really think about who you hate in our school, then choose the one that you have the most disdain for and write it here for all to see". His message drew 240 replies and featured everyone from "that stupid blind girl" to a school dinner lady.

At a Boston school recently, several students were disciplined for creating a lewd website about a teenage girl's supposed sexual activities. The site included her name, photograph and phone number. In New York a 14-year-old girl who foolishly sent her boyfriend a camera phone picture of herself topless was mortified when he posted it on a website used by everyone at their school.

"Anonymity emboldens the person doing it -- and it increases the fear factor for the victim," says Kowalski. Parry Aftab, founder of an online nonprofit called WiredSafety.org says teens "are exploring who they are -- and they role-play by being mean, horrible and hateful in ways they would never be off-line." Aftab recalls meeting a New Jersey 13-year-old with a preppie-perfect appearance--khakis, button-down shirt, penny loafers complete with pennies--and a creepy hobby of making online death threats against strangers. He would gather information from chat rooms or people's websites, then threaten them as if he knew them. Says Aftab: "He said to me, 'I would never do anything in real life. I'm a good kid. But I can do it online because it doesn't matter.'"

Actually, it does. When a cyberbully lashes out, it can be a sign of emotional or psychological problems. And cyberbullying is viral. The Clemson study found that kids who are victimized "seem to be heavily involved in bullying others," says psychologist Sue Limber. In the real world, physical intimidation may keep those who are bullied from retaliating, but that's not a problem online. "Cyberbullying can also lead to other forms of victimization," Limber says. If someone insults a classmate on a Xanga, the effects could include ostracization at school. "Passing notes or writing on lockers was nothing," says Limber. "This takes public to a whole other level."

"It's not so much a school concern as it is an issue for students and parents," he said. "This site particularly was getting a lot of hits. It's a blog site but they also post pictures and biographical information and then send each other notes." He added, "My concern is less as a principal and more as a dad." Sousa said he found the prospect of students putting information on the Internet, potentially available to predators, was a serious concern. "As soon as someone has a name and a general geographic location, it can take an Internet predator 20 minutes to find their address and directions to their house," he said. "Any time a teen puts their own photo or biographical information on a Web site, it's something that parents at least need to know about."

The ways cyberbullies harass their victims expand every day as new technologies are released and the cyberbullies find ways to abuse them. They use e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, bulletin boards, chatrooms, profiles, photo and videophones, text messaging and Web sites. They often pose as their victim, doing things or saying thing to get them into trouble online. They may even break-into their victim’s accounts by either misusing or guessing their passwords, and once there either spam their victim’s friends or even change the password locking the victim out of their own account.