By Family Circle

It’s called cyber-bullying, and it’s growing. A study in 2000 by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham found that just over 5 percent of American children had been victims of online aggression.

In 2004, i-SAFE America, a nonprofit Internet-safety advocacy group, reported that the proportion had risen to 42 percent of children.

Here are some ways to protect your kids online and prevent them from being tempted to play the aggressor, from Family Circle magazine:

• Have a talk – Ask your children if they’ve heard of kids sending insulting messages or broadcasting negative e-mails and embarrassing photos and videos. Explain that this is not a joke; it’s cruel and it’s unacceptable. Tell them what will happen if they are perpetrators – for example, you’ll terminate their computer access.

n Monitor behavior – Set up computers in shared spaces such as the living room, not in your kids’ bedrooms. Limit instant-messaging and e-mailing time to a half-hour a day. You can also restrict your children’s “buddies list,” look into tracking software which records outgoing and incoming email messages, online sites visited and other data, or even block certain Internet access, video messaging and other functions on our children’s cell phones.

n Protect private data – Warn your kids never to give out personal information, including passwords, real names, street addresses, phone numbers, even parents’ occupations. Counsel them not to open messages from strangers and to delete known cyber-bullies from their buddy lists. Also make them aware that anything they write online can be circulated all over school.

n Watch your mouth – Do you gossip in front of your children? Doing so models the very behavior you’d like them to avoid.

n Keep your cool – If your child reveals that he or she is being bullied online, react calmly and empathetically. If the sender is a schoolmate, seek help from your school’s principal and guidance counselor. If the message includes threats of violence, notify the police.

n Don’t fight back – Encouraging your child to send a return barrage of defensive e-mails will inflame the situation. The bully wants attention and you’ll be providing it.