Awareness by adults can help stop cyber bullying

Cyber bullying made the news -- again.

Two girls, ages 14 and 12, were arrested recently in connection with the death of 12-year-old classmate Rebecca Sedwick, who jumped from the top of an abandoned concrete plant last month.

Among the online messages that drove Rebecca to jump to her death were, "You should die" and "why don't you go kill yourself?" The messages didn't come via the social networking sites Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. They were sent via newer, lesser-known social applications called Ask.fm and Kik.

In addition to Ask.fm and Kik, there's Voxer, which is a walkie-talkie-type app for messaging, and Snapchat, which allows the sender to set a time limit for how long recipients can view their photo, text or video messages.

The ease of use and the availability of such sites makes it all too easy for some to exploit others.

Intolerance, harassment and bullying are all too frequent occurrences.

For a number of us, it's all too easy to remember our own days as a youth growing up and surviving the trials of taunts, name calling and verbal abuse.

Sadly today, episodes such as these have gotten more dangerous and have led to more extreme circumstances, such as the Florida tragedy.

Consider these statistics:

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.

Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University.

A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying.

Ten to 14-year-old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide, according to the study above.

According to statistics reported by ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying.

Experts say the best way to combat the problem starts with awareness.

Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, operates http://cyberbullying.us, which has numerous resources for parents, educators and teens.

Parents can feel empowered rather than overwhelmed by being as actively involved in their kids' online lives as they are in their offline lives. That means being familiar with the technology, Hinduja told CNN.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who made the arrests of the two girls in the Florida case, said parents should also keep open communication with their kids' friends.

In that CNN story on the arrests, Judd implored parents to take more responsibility for the actions of their children online.

All of us, most notably parents and educators, must be even more connected with our youth.

In most cases, where these situations have escalated into violence or death, someone knew there was a problem.

All of us have a role in working with our children to prevent harassment and to report it if it does happen.

Children shouldn't have to live in fear.