Txt bullying has been big news for the past few weeks after a young girl took her own life after being bullied by a group of peers via her cellphone in Putaruru. And while bullying is as old as people, our technology keeps coming up with better and more expansive ways for those who want to bully to be able to do it. Kids are now playing with the grown-up's toys.

Whilst H hasn't been bullied by txt (as far as I know) I have had cause for alarm on performing my random mother's monitoring of her MSN contacts following her telling me she was chatting on MSN to a friend of her best friend Jennifer, who is male and 19. That's when the alarm bells start ringing as to what she is up to on the net when the door is shut, especially after watching the TV show late last year(?) on paedophiles "grooming" kids for sexual encounters. Then, tis afternoon, Jennifer abused Adam on the computer, thinking H was logged in to MSN and the camel's back went "snap".

So I opened up the message conversations saved on the kids' PC and although I found no issues with her conversation with the 19 year old (and she hadn't spoken to him again since I said she shouldn't), I did have issues with the way her so-called best friend who has just moved to Napier was talking to her, giving her a great deal of grief, calling her nasty names and generally acting like the unpleasant and troublesome girl we already suspected she was.

And I dealt with her. I added her to my MSN and when she came online the conversation went like this:

Jennifer: Hi
Me: do you know who I am?
Jennifer: umm.....nope sorri
Me: I am Heather's mother and I have been reading the white trash crap you send to my daughter, and the message you left Adam when he was on the computer. I have had enough of the nasty, disgusting crap that you message and its about time you stop this horrible version of text bullying or you will be banned from ANY contact. Got it???
Jennifer: oh sorri i wont do it again
Me: you should be utterly disgusted with your language, your behaviour and your attitude. Damn straight you won't do it again.
Jennifer: plz dnt cut me off frm heather
Me: Now GROW UP you silly little girl.

/end rark up

Now, I know they are 15 and only sort of kids, but what I cannot believe is that a 15 year old didn't know that the things she types to H about what she would like to do to her 19 year old 'boyfriend' (who supposedly lives in Hawaii *rolls eyes*) and the names she calls her best friend and the things she says to total strangers in chat with her and H are very wrong.

But she sure as hell does now and Heather followed it up with a lesson in assertive cyber-safety.

The fact that H took her mother's 'interfering' totally in her stride with no bitching at all tells me everything about how she felt after these conversations and when she apologised to her, H made it very clear that she was not too concerned with how Jen felt and that she wasn't interested in being spoken to like that ever again. And if she ever does, I have her mother's phone number and will explain her daughter's pedigree to her, in full.

Heather 10 points for maturity and attitude and not sinking to Jennifer's level in retailiation; Jen minus 5 points for acting like a nasty, spiteful slapper despite having spent enough time in this house to know it is unacceptable here.

And as for those kids who bullied the Putaruru girl via txt, they should publicise all their names and let them see how much popularity they carry around after that and bugger the issue of them being minors.