The information about online bullying that junior high students of the Altoona Area School District received this school year is the kind of presentation that should be available to similar-aged students of other districts, those near and far from Blair County.

The mental and emotional scars today’s young people can carry long after their school years make it imperative that they understand the potential long-term harm if they are not watchful about the dangers which they can be exposed to via the internet and social media.

Although some of the information received by the Altoona students during the presentation they attended was, understandably, not new to them, hearing it from someone like a member of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office staff added stronger emphasis to the seriousness and urgency necessary regarding all that was discussed.

Online bullying can be many times more harmful than the physical contact bullies of the past inflicted on their victims.

The central focus of the session that Altoona sixth, seventh and eighth graders attended was the state’s Sticks and Stones program, which strives to change the way students think about bullying.

Enduring bullying is not a harmless rite of growing up — neither for girls nor boys. Every year, numerous boys and girls opt for suicide to free themselves from the torment being inflicted on them.

Danielle Moore, the Attorney General’s Office staffer who provided the presentation, urged students to add tools to help them make good decisions.

“This generation is different because of online activity supplementing in-person activity,” she said. “It’s really online activity that’s become the main social focus.”

The internet is not all bad, Moore told the students, reminding them that there are good tools on the internet for helping them to stay safe and support each other.

However, she told them, there also are many dangers and opportunities for bullies and child predators to harm them.

Therefore, growing up now can be a much more challenging experience than it was for their parents.

Unfortunately, there still are parents, who despite having experienced life with the internet, remain out of touch with many of the internet’s current “trouble spots” that their children each day are challenged to navigate.

Hopefully that is changing as news reports and government agencies such as the Attorney General’s Office seek to provide beefed-up transparency about the dangers at hand.

During the students’ session with Moore, eighth grade Principal Jerry Koehle noted that many of the reported student conflicts on social media happen outside of school because it is easier to write hurtful words on social media or send text messages than it is to confront problems with other students in a professional manner at school.

“It’s just an unfortunate circumstance of what students have available,” he said.

Meanwhile, Moore voiced a reminder that everyone — teen or otherwise — should keep in mind about posting inappropriate photos of themselves online:

Not only can those photos be a trigger for bullying, but they also can, at times, subject the sender to criminal charges.

Then there is one other important point that needs to be made: Don’t suffer in silence if you are a victim of bullying.

Help is available to help put an end to that unconscionable situation.