One of the first questions we are asked by media, parents, educators, and others who are unfamiliar with cyberbullying is simply: what is it?  This is a lot more complicated question than one would assume.  In our academic work, we define cyberbullying as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices.”  This definition, while useful, is fairly broad and ambiguous.  When asking youth whether or not they have experienced cyberbullying, it is important to be very specific with what you are talking about.  In fact, one of the primary reasons we see such a range of estimates about how many youth experience cyberbullying is because of definitional differences.  In our most recent study, we informed youth that cyberbullying was: “when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person online or repeatedly picks on another person through email or text message or when someone posts something online about another person that they don’t like.”  Obviously the key feature of cyberbullying that we want to highlight is its repetitive nature.  While the technology or web environment employed may change (cell phone vs. computer; MySpace vs. Yahoo Chat vs. Facebook, etc), cyberbullying behaviors remain relatively consistent: using technology to repeatedly be hurtful to others.  We’ll talk more about definitional issues on this blog because they are so important.  Let us know your thoughts.  Is there one definition of cyberbullying that is better than the others?