WEBUTUCK — The computer screen flickers as instant message boxes begin opening at an alarming rate. It’s late, and digital "pings," signaling the start of new conversations, fill the dead of night.

"I just heard what really happened last week."

"Is it true what you did during lunch yesterday?"

"Billy just IMed [instant messenged] me saying you’ve been talking about me behind my back."

Who are these people and why don’t you know what they’re talking about?

Those are the questions that are plaguing adults trying to stem a new form of bullying on the Internet. In younger generations, the power that this new technology wields can far exceed the maturity and responsibility of the user. Schools across the nation are finding themselves face-to-face with this problem in the form of cyberbullying.

Jay Posephney, principal at Webutuck High School, said he really started noticing the problem when MySpace hit middle and high schools, approximately three years ago.

"That’s when you started to see it [in the classrooms]," he said. "MySpace put it on the map."

At a recent PTA safety meeting held by three principals in the Webutuck district, Posephney identified the Internet as his biggest concern regarding student safety.

"You wouldn’t believe the conversations [students are] having," he said.

Both Posephney and Dieter Schimmelpfennig, principal at Eugene Brooks Middle School, are relatively new to the Webutuck district, and both come from much larger districts with far more exposure to problems like cyberbullying.

"Coming from Beacon, this is nothing in comparison," Schimmelpfennig said, noting that there have been a few incidents, but nothing that’s posed a serious threat.

The problem lies in the relationship between traditional bullying and cyberbullying.

"You get a lot more cyberbullying," Posephney said. "It’s the anonymity of sitting behind a screen. Students will be a lot meaner and say much harsher things. It takes a different type of person to physically bully someone."

Posephney said that many students approach him with concerns, and the school usually intervenes at the peak of the problem. While a quarrel could start between two students, social online networks can nurture the conflict until many people in that online community are involved.

Schimmelpfennig likened the effect to the social game "Telephone," where something said when the game starts has completely changed by the time it ends.

Cyberbullying in the Webutuck district mostly revolves around MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger and texts sent and received on cell phones, according to Posephney. Facebook, another social networking Web site, tends to be "a little more highbrow," according to the high school principal, and hasn’t garnered the same response from students.

But the biggest problem the school faces in confronting cyberbullying is that the majority of the offenders are operating off campus, after school hours.

"We can’t do anything legally about what happens outside of school," Posephney said.

Schimmelpfennig echoed those feelings.

"Parents will call and say, ‘What do I do?’ but it didn’t happen in school," he said.

"We try to get as much information as possible," Posephney said. "I tell students to print out what they can. Sometimes kids will log into their accounts and show me things that have been said."

Parents have been called into school along with their children, as Posephney said he tries to involve as many people as he can.

"A lot of this is a learning experience for them. Students often don’t realize that it’s hurtful," he said, adding that in most cases, once a student’s online behavior has been brought to light, the situation tends to calm down. "But there are still those who don’t get it, and don’t see it as that serious of a thing."

"Sometimes the kids just never listened when it was explained to them, or maybe it never was explained to them," Schimmelpfennig said. "But 99 percent of time the problems revolve around 1 percent of the kids."

Both principals stressed that cyberbullying, while a major concern of the district, was not an out-of-control problem. So far, no incidents have escalated to physical confrontations, and Schimmelpfennig said he’s only had to deal with two or three cases.

In Pine Plains, the district is involved in several educational programs that try to curb cyberbullying before it starts. District Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer said she wasn’t aware of any particular incidents, but that Internet safety was something the district treated as a serious matter.

The school participates in i-SAFE, a federal government-sponsored nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate and empower youth to make their Internet experiences safe and responsible.

"As you know, cyberbullying is only one aspect of Internet safety," Kaumeyer said. Many teachers in Pine Plains have been trained in i-SAFE protocol.

Kaumeyer also said that the district works closely with the New York State Police, which provides a training program as well as presentations for both students and adults. Educational programs held in the district run the gamut from elementary to high school levels, and as Kaumeyer acknowledged, "Internet safety for elementary students is much different than for middle and high school."

The district holds informational presentations, usually on the first day of school, on bullying and the harmful effects it has on other people. The middle school hosted a presentation by a man whose son took his own life after experiencing online bullying. But according to both principals, the real solutions have to come from the parents, not the school district.

"Monitor what your kids are doing," Posephney advised. "There are ways to set up Windows or MySpace to track what they’re doing. See what they’re writing and see what other people are writing to them."

"Technology is part of who these kids are," Schimmelpfennig said. "You don’t want to take that away from them. You want kids to be technologically savvy because that’s what the future holds. Talk to them about Facebook and MySpace. Tell them when you start posting things, people can use it against you."

Often the problem is that while parents are out of touch with the technology, and children are often the first to jump on new programs and hardware. But Posephney argued that shouldn’t be a deterrent.

"It’s about being an active part in their lives," he said. "When they get a new phone that has text messaging, ask them how it works. Ask about MySpace. Understand what your child is doing and the potential risks behind that. I’m a techno geek, and the students are always far ahead of me. I utilize them for that."

Kaumeyer agreed. "With the Web sites and social networking sites, it’s a challenge [for the district] to try to stay one step behind, or even close, to the newest technologies."

"[Cyberbullying] needs to be dealt with, brought to light, and we, as a community, need to handle it. Parents will say, ‘My son is threatened.’ I tell them, press charges, file a complaint, but they don’t do it. We want to follow up, and we want to help, but the parents need to file charges. There’s nothing else I can do other than bringing in people and trying to get to the bottom of a problem."

Posephney added that students are interested in opening up and talking about what they are doing.

"Kids want to have structure. They want to know they’re safe. There’s this big concern about ‘no snitching,’ but that’s not exactly true, he said. "Almost every kid wants an adult to know so they feel safe."