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Formspring.me, a social media tool as well as similar websites in which members/users are allowed to anonymously pose questions for others to answer publicly.

In truth, these social media tools are little more than rumor mills that provide users with a platform to vent their likes and dislikes about anything or anyone with total immunity.

A good portion of the content relates to the latest movies, music and the everyday things that effect kid’s lives. Yet it is also a breeding ground for malicious gossip, venomous falsehoods, terrifying threats and degrading comments that can make a kid’s life unbearable. All in all, it is simply the result of one or a group of kids having it in for another kid. That’s it in a nutshell.

In all likelihood, this appears to be the case of 17-year-old Alexis Pilkington who succumbed to the bombardment of false accusations and took her own life.

Undoubtedly, cyberbullying is one of the most terrifying problems parents of teenage children face today. The death of Alexis Pilkington is by no means some isolated incident. It occurs a lot more often than you think – especially when a good many of the cases of teenage suicide resulting from cyberbullying go unreported.

Formspring.me, like numerous other social networking sites, claimed 50 million visitors last month. Yet even more staggering is how few parents actually realize what their kids are up to on these sites. Even if you are not a computer savvy parent, you can talk to your child about these sites and the potential consequences of cyberbullying. Good parenting and supervision can make a world of difference.

Another way to keep your kids safe on line and prevent minor incidents from becoming major problems is by installing surveillance software on your child’s computer or mobile phone. While there are quite few good solutions on the market, I prefer to go with the experts, PC Magazine, who tout FamilySafe’s Sentry Parental Control software as the most comprehensive and effective software of its kind -- which automatically alerts parents, via E- mail or mobile phone texting, the moment a child encounters inappropriate material.

In the world we live in today, good kids from good families are just as vulnerable to the problems presented in the cyber-world as every other kid. All said, being a good parent is undoubtedly the best way to keeps kids safe on the Internet. It’s also the best way for keeping kids like Alexis Pilkington out of the headlines

Robert Nadler
Health & Happiness Columnist
www.Examiner.com