SCHOOLS are being forced to give students special lessons on how to treat each other with respect when communicating online amid an explosion of cyber bullying among teenagers.
The "cyber citizenship" courses based on an American idea aim to promote more harmonious relationships between high school students in class and at home.
Riverside Girls High School at Gladesville in Sydney's Northern Suburbs will lead the way this year in curbing nasty exchanges between students in cyberspace.
Principal Judy King and her staff have written programs for the harmony courses which initially will be aimed at students in the early years of high school.
A survey of Riverside students found some spent up to 30 hours a week networking on the internet.
One senior student spent four to five hours every night on social networking website Bebo when her mother thought she was doing homework.
"The intensity of the friendship groups and the fallout is worse in all schools because of cyberspace," Ms King said.
"So... we are going to concentrate on cyber citizenship – that's what the American teachers call it. And we're going to incorporate that into Year 7 and Year 8 ICT (Information and Communication Technologies)."
Cyber bullying is reaching epidemic proportions in schools with bullies and victims using websites such as Facebook and MySpace to trash other children's reputations, research has found.
A national study of up to 7500 students across 100 public and private schools commissioned by the Federal Government is about to lift the lid on "covert bullying".
The research shows families have been forced to move home because of the damage done to their children's reputations.
One teenager in the survey said: "I feel like sharks are circling me."
Dr Barbara Spears of the University of South Australia's School of Education said: "They are manipulating MySpace and Facebook to denigrate, exclude, isolate and humiliate. Kids feel unsafe, violated, threatened and powerless because of this – they are bewildered."
Education Minister John Della Bosca acknowledges this bullying is an issue for the entire community.
Character assassinations
The worst of cyber bullying:
A FIGHT between a high school student and a 15-year-old ex-pupil, which led to a brawl involving 15 students and watched by about 150 others, was recorded with a mobile phone and posted on YouTube
ON Bebo a Year 11 girl made death threats towards another girl, including bringing weapons to school
A WBESITE set up by two Year 7 students made derogatory remarks about pupils and teachers
A FORMER teacher at elite public school Hurlstone Agricultural High sued when a hate-filled website accused him of being a paedophile
