Dear all, I have been following this thread with some mounting horror. I know that here at Edgehill in Darkest Devonshire we are less susceptible to this type of problem than many schools. I _have_ to repeat my original comment - MOST of the problem (for us) seems to be outside of the school environment. I also repeat my previous statement - our personal e-mail system is officially described as "postcard security" - it is open to inspection in the process of sending, and so far has not been grossly abused (we send out only about a dozen e-mails each day, mostly from our boarders along the lines of "Dear Mum & Dad ... ".) The pupils KNOW that I can read their mail (even though I don't), and that their replies are printed and distributed with the internal mail. If the privacy never existed (and it's free) then they don't miss it. If privacy for e-mail is required, they can arrange for confidential sending, or must use one of the Hotmail/Postmaster type services on-line. By not supporting internal e-mail, we have removed this medium for bullying. Any message to be passed internally is simply placed in a public folder for collection. No privacy, no problem, and spoofing is impossible (barring password-theft), as the original owner of the file is logged (along with time, date and source system etc. etc. etc.) - and the pupils have some regard for anyone who can not only tell them what they have done, but when, how and to whome whilst masquerading as whome ... and for inventive threats involving vats of hot marmalade, the lake, long ropes and catapults :) I might add that, like most school IT units, we have THE Power. A ban for the rest of the term is usually enough, and a visit to the Deputy Head (official "Scary-Person #2") has so far been necessary only once. Being a private school, we also have the financial sanction as leverage. The Cyber-Bully is a new problem, and one which we are hopefully in a position to reduce to negligability. Denial of service is the best, and most immediate sanction we have, but only for pupils who have no other access to on-line systems. Simply logging a user off and telling them to get out of the computer room is usually enough to elicit an apology the following morning. (Like I said, Darkest Devonshire has a relatively genteel pace of life :) Regards, Paul <SysAdm@edgecoll.clara.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edgehill IT Department Email Service. Please check sender's address from body of Message for return address. Find us at: www.edgecoll.clara.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------