COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Bullying isn't just on the playground anymore. With cyber-bullying on the rise, parents are looking for options to protect their children.
Upper Arlington police recently investigated a report of a middle school student creating a fraudulent Facebook page with pornographic videos.
Just last week, there was a case of a high school student sending two messages via Facebook, threatening another student.
A Columbus woman says a product immediately stopped hurtful cyber-bullying.
Donna Riggleman says when she installed what she calls a "spy device" on her daughter's computer, word spread quickly among students and "mean" messages stopped right away.
Her daughter dealt with cyber-bullying a couple years ago.
"We ended up putting some type of spy device on (the computer) and printing (the messages) out and once it got around that some parents were (using spy devices), (the harassment) stopped immediately," Riggleman said.
Tammy Winkler said she talks to her kids about online safety and keeps a very close eye on their behavior.
"We make it clear that we can look over their shoulder at any time we want to, that the computer's up here, not down in the basement or in a bedroom where they have their door shut and things like that," Winkler said.
Winkler even has accounts on Facebook and Myspace to keep track of what her kids are doing and who's sending them messages.
She monitors them the old-fashioned way, but MicroCenter said products like e-blaster and Spector-Pro do the monitoring for parents -- electronically.
"For parents who are working or who are going to be out of the house a lot and to be able to monitor it through the computer that way, (I) think that would be really helpful," Winkler said.
Parents can be notified via e-mail or print out an actual snapshot picture of your computer screen to give to police, if necessary.
"I know that lots of kids are really hurt because cyber-bullying moves into physical sometimes and things like that, so I know you have to stay on top of that," Winkler said.
She advises other parents to know what their children are doing and to whom they're talking to prevent cyber-bullying from beginning.
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