Bullying by children and teens is mean, it's ugly and it's frightening.

It's been around for millennia, and probably is a behavior that stems from our animal roots.

But now that kids have access to the Internet, what was once face-to-face bullying has taken on a new and even uglier form. In the old days, at least a child knew the identity of his or her bully and could try to take refuge from the bullying at home or in the classroom.

In the nasty new world of cyber-bullying, as it's called, the meanness and emotional distress that bullies can inflict is magnified. Anyone with an online connection can bully, or can gain access to the Internet version of that bullying. A child's humiliation and torment is thus magnified in a cyberworld with no borders, no time limits -- and little ability to identify the bully. Cyber-bullying is 24-hour, it's there for the entire world to see and it can follow children anywhere they go. It's every child's -- and parents' -- nightmare.

As reporter Matthew Stone wrote in a story that appeared on Monday, cyber-bullying can take multiple forms. Bullies can hijack a teen's online personal profile and write awful things on it. They can hide behind assumed names and hurl insults in an endless number of online forums. In one terrible case, a mother pretended to be a 16-year-old boy and wrote online put-downs about a 13-year-old girl who then reacted by killing herself.

Maine's schools are doing their best to cope with this new way of harassing and hurting students. Some schools have adapted their anti-bullying programs to encompass cyber-bullying. The more of this that's done, the better.

Online sites that cater to teens have begun to include information on cyber-bullying and how to deal with it.

But the truth is that it's very hard to deal with cyber-bullying, given its anonymous nature. When you can't identify the culprit, then holding them accountable isn't possible. And getting the attention of website administrators, in order to take down the bullying, isn't always easy.

Lawmakers in a number of states have passed legislation to address bullying, including cyber-bullying. One lawmaker in Maine has said she'll look at the possibility of introducing legislation to do the same next session.

But we think that's a top-down way that deals with the problem after it's happened and any anti-cyber-bullying law is going to be incredibly difficult to enforce.

Which is where parents and teachers come in.

We will likely never stop bullying. But in this day and age, bullying is magnified by the new, online medium in which it can take place. So vigilance and education that starts at home is crucial.

A child who is taught that bullying is wrong is less likely to engage in it. A child who is taught how to handle bullying -- tell an adult, fast -- is less likely to suffer from it over the long-term.