Bullying has been a widely discussed topic in recent news casts, after several youth have committed suicide due to emotional issues related to bullying. Bullying is no longer limited to youth or school children calling names in a school yard. Bullying has evolved. Harassment and bullying through the use of the Internet is becoming more and more common. Cyber bullying is taking bullying to a whole new level. This advanced bullying allows for the fastest degradation of a person or entity through malicious use of multiple sites on the Internet. It can be spread to hundreds, thousands, or millions of readers at the click of a button and there is a "forever" record of it at your fingertips.

According to the National Crime Prevention Council cyber-bullying is "when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person." While this type of bullying is becoming common by nefarious individuals lacking sound judgment and aided by the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, there are also individuals who seem bound to commit profligate acts against corporations and small businesses by use of the Internet.

Corporate bullying is also a growing problem. Sites are specifically set up to promote Corporate Cyber Bullying such as customer complaint sites and rip off reports. These sites create a forum for individuals to pose as a customer or victim of the company for the purpose of publishing material that defames or ridicules the company or individuals within a company. The intent is to embarrass and harm the reputation of the company and its employees. Content reading would indicate that many of these postings are not actual accounts of events that occurred between a company and a customer, but rather exaggerated events of ex-employees or personal vengeance against individuals at the company intended to harass and damage.

Certain characteristics inherent in online technologies increase the likelihood that they will be exploited for deviant purposes. Unlike physical bullying, Cyber Bullies exploit characteristics inherent to online technological sites allowing them to post content that defames and harms others while remaining virtually anonymous. Using temporary email accounts, pseudonyms and out right lying about their identity allows them to avoid the normal social constraints on their behavior that would otherwise keep most of them from committing acts known to be criminal offenses had they used their true identities.

Unfortunately, at this time laws have aided the Cyber Bullies rather than deterring them from harming others by use of the Internet. Many complaint forums hide behind free speech laws and rely on individuals posting information to "tell the truth" while allowing them to sign up under assumed names and post under pseudonyms intended to allow harassment without accountability. However, these forums admit that they do not verify the information, as are called for in actual ethics of reporting, even if they are notified that the posting is untruthful. Knowingly, they aid corporate bullying and defamation. Positive corporate reports about how wonderful a company is do not make these forums money.

According to the Cyber Bullying Research Center’s 2010 statistical reports, less than 10 states have enacted laws to govern Cyber bullying for the growing problem of youth and schools, let alone laws to protect corporations and adult individuals from defamation and harm due to disgruntled relationships posted under false identities. This is indeed a growing problem. While larger corporations have funds to pay to the forums to "clean up their reputation", smaller companies are left again to fend for themselves dealing with harassment and lies. This is just one more thing to push small companies out of business in a struggling economy.