Everyone used to consider a bully the person who walked around stealing lunch money and intimidating kids smaller than them, but now the definition of a bully is beginning to expand. Thousands of teens log on to the internet everyday to browse websites or chat with friends; but how many of these teens are logging on to bully or are being bullied?

The National Crime Prevention Council suggests that more than half of America’s teens are subject to cyber bullying in one form or another where only 17 percent admitted to actually bullying another individual.

Cyber bullying can be very harmful to the victim. According to safety.lovetoknow.com, cases of bullying can cause poor self esteem, depression, repeated school absences and in some cases suicide. All of the problems caused by cyber bullying are similar to real-life bullying, but with cyber bullying there is often no escape.

Federal prosecutors charged 49-year-old Lori Drew for creating a Myspace hoax which investigators believe caused 13-year-old Megan Meier to commit suicide. Ashley Grills, a friend of Drew’s daughter, created a fake Myspace page pretending to be an internet Romeo and targeted Meier.

Drew, Grill’s alliance, continued to message Meier, making her fall in love with this pretend Romeo only to “break up with her” in the end. The last message she sent to Meier stated that “the world would be a better place without her” which investigators believe was the last message she got before she committed suicide.

There are several cases of cyber bullying where people have retaliated to the offender but in some cases, people hold in their feelings until they can’t take it anymore and react in rash ways such as what Meier did, according to stopcyberbullying.org.

Jasmine*, a victim of cyber bullying, feels that people who are bullies have no realization of the problems they are causing for the victim.

“They think they can say whatever they want without people reacting to it,” Jasmine said.

Although Jasmine was upset by her bullying situation, she did something most other victims of cyber bullying do not do; she took it outside the internet and retaliated.

“I was upset about it because I didn’t even know (the bully). I guess (the bully) just didn’t expect it to end the way it did because I brought it to (the bully’s) attention, outside the internet,” Jasmine said.

Teens react to bullying in many different ways on a large scale; whether it is taking revenge on the offender or committing suicide. Now the General Assembly of North Carolina is taking charge and making a law to scare away possible bully attacks.

Starting December 1, 2009, all acts of cyber bullying committed after that date will be considered punishable as a Class 1 Misdemeanor. A Class 1 Misdemeanor is defined as a maximum punishment of more than 6 months imprisonment.