Technology today has made a variety of new ways for people of all ages to communicate. Whether it’s using e-mail, websites, instant messaging, chat rooms or texting to stay in touch with friends and make new ones. Due to these new methods of communication bullies no longer have to confront their victims in person, they can bully anonymously and can even pose as a different person. There has been an increase in bullying as evident in the numerous news paper articles, television shows and magazines.

The amount of cyber bullying that goes on has become so severe that cyber bullying is now considered a criminal act. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, It is a crime to communicate repeatedly with someone if your communication causes them to fear for their safety or the safety of others. Considering the circumstances, everyone should understand the seriousness of cyber bullying.

The news as increased our interest on this topic, so we decided to create another experiment that would allow us to determine which form of cyber bullying is most frequently used and which gender is more likely to be bullied between urban and rural areas? We had volunteers from grade seven to twelve fill out our survey on cyber bullying. We were able to find out that text messaging is most commonly used; females are more targeted than boys and cyber bullying is found more in urban areas.

Based on these results, everyone should realize that cyber bullying is considered a criminal act and that anyone responsible should quit now!