Online bullying is a lot similar to bullying at school. However, instead of a face-to-face encounter, online bullying is an unseen force, can tend to be much more regular as it can be done at any time, 365 days of the year and it's not limited to just a few students but can spread among a greater number of people.

This does make it a lot more difficult to deal with.

All our children and young people need to know what to do if they are bullied and if it happens to them they need to be able to act immediately.

Here are some steps to help deal with online bullying...

Choose friends carefully - While it is fine to make friends online, it is very important that your teen chooses carefully whom they befriend. Let them know that it is important not to just accept everyone as a friend...and if there is someone who starts to be mean...not to wait until things get worse - they need to let you know immediately.

(As a parent, this may be something that you want to monitor - I know some parents that become a friend of their teen to keep an eye on what they are posting and also have their child's login details to make sure that they are only friends with people they know. This may seem intrusive, however, this is giving them a boundary - if you want to use the internet you can, however these are the conditions.)

Ignore the attempts of online bullies - If your child is bullied online, they need to have the courage to ignore the person. Not paying attention to them proves they are not being effective and hopefully will lead the bully to leaving your child alone because they are having no impact. If your child wants to ask them to stop - get them to do this with you and just do in once and that's it. No reply, no arguing - just STOP.

If the online bullying continues it will also help if they block the person - this can be done on a mobile phone, on Facebook and other online services. There should be no other response. Trying to respond further will only make the situation worse and contribute more to the problem.

Avoid handling matters alone - If your child is bullied online - make sure they know to get help immediately, letting you as a parent know or someone they trust. Emphasize how important it is to not keep the online bullying to themselves. There are people around them who can help.

Not only will they get the help they need - they get additional support.

Always keep a record - With online bullying it is important to show your child how to keep a record of what the person has said - or do this with them. Copy it and paste it into a word document - including the date and who the bully was. If the bullying continues, you as a parent can then let the people who run the service, Facebook or Twitter for example, know what this person is doing.

As a parent you can help others - As you grow your knowledge and have success in helping your child with the safe use of social networking and other technology... let other parents know of your experience and how it is working for you. Let them know of your success.

This act of sharing is significant enough to make a difference in the lives of many children and families.

These are just a few things you can do as a parent to help deal with online bullying.

Bullying No More: Working together with both parents and schools to help Break the Cycle of Bullying.