c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Beware the wrath of a dumped boyfriend or girlfriend spreading rumors about a former partner on MySpace.

Pity the middle school student whose clothes, popularity or appearance becomes the object of derision in public chat rooms frequented by classmates.

These days, teenagers and their parents don’t have to look out just for sexual predators online. Some of their peers are turning into cyberbullies, using sites such as MySpace and Facebook to harass and humiliate classmates.

That’s where Grace comes in.

Grace as in Grace Doe of “Grace Notes,” the teenage protagonist of the first book in author Dandi Daley Mackall’s new four-part fiction series, Blog On. Mackall, from West Salem, Ohio, developed the series with Zondervan, a Christian publisher, as a fun way to encourage young girls to use the Internet in positive ways.

Mackall is not alone. Religious groups and schools are responding to the explosive popularity of blogs by prohibiting access to MySpace, Xanga, Facebook and other social networking sites, and asking young people to let their faith guide them in cyberspace as they would on the playground or in the classroom.

“The Internet is a gift from God,” said Jeff Stutzman, catechetical media consultant for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, “and you must use it as all other gifts.”

Three years ago, there was no MySpace. Now the site and others like it have become part of kids’ lives down into late elementary school and middle school.

Young people use the social networking sites to talk, share photos and post personal journal entries on their pages or in chat rooms that can be specific to their schools.

If you don’t have a blog on MySpace, “You’re weird. You’re not American. You’re Canadian,” said Ali, 16, a youth group member at Church on the Rise in Westlake, Ohio.

She and other teens from the church, identified by their first names only, said for the most part what they post online is innocent stuff.

“What we did today, what we feel,” Ali said. “Basically the same old useless conversations teenagers have been having for ages.”

At their best, blogs can help young people develop their voices as writers, enabling them to share their feelings and the challenges they face, say teenagers and adults who monitor these sites. The conversations and experiences also can help others through an often tumultuous stage in life.

“You can sort of reach out to people through blogs,” Ali said. Sometimes a friend will tell her that it was meaningful to read her blog because the friend was experiencing the same thing.

Tasha, 15, said sometimes she shares a biblical passage. “It’s my blog, so I can say what I’m feeling,” she said. “From being Christian, I go at it with God being in it.”

But these sites can cause real problems. In addition to sexual predators searching out potential victims, cyberbullying has become a growing concern.

Mackall, who often visits schools as an author to find out what kids are talking about, said one young girl received 350 hate e-mails because of false information posted about her online.

“I think it hurts more than if you’re physically bullied on a playground,” Stutzman said. “Online, anyone can see it.”

Young people deal with cyberbullying in different ways. Some try to ignore the insults, and bar people who post offensive remarks from their sites.

Tasha said when she sees an offensive remark about a friend, she tries to be encouraging by reassuring the friend, “I know how you really are.”

But it is not always easy.

Sarah, 13, said she always sticks up for her friends online. But when it comes to other classmates being picked on, she said, “I’d like to say that I would stick up for them, but I know I probably wouldn’t.”

By staying cloaked in anonymity, online combatants are less likely to learn how to forgive after a fight, Mackall said.

In “Grace Notes,” Mackall’s main character is a shy person who considers herself invisible in school. But she finds it rewarding to share her experiences online.

As the book goes on, Grace finds herself constantly having to revise the stereotypes of classmates she refers to in her blog as “Bouncy, Perky Girl” and “New Girl.”

Once Grace begins to know these people, and the anger they feel at her judgments from afar, she realizes both that her blogging can hurt others and that people are more complex than the boxes adolescents can use to classify one another.

Fortunately, there is a flip side to cyberbullying, Mackall said.

“It’s easier to stand up for yourself or your friends in cyberspace,” she said.

(David Briggs writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

KRE/PH END BRIGGS

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