Social-networking Web sites, text messaging and instant messages aren't just ways for kids to stay in touch, says former Honolulu police detective Chris Duque. They've also become easy ways for kids to bully and harass.

Gone are the days of passing catty hand-written notes in biology class. Nowadays kids are broadcasting their meanness via Facebook and MySpace to a much wider audience.

"It can range from impersonation, harassment to just plain talking stink online," said Duque, president of IngraGard Hawaii, a security firm. "And when it gets bad, it gets really bad."

Duque says he's seen it all: A teacher gets impersonated online by a student who doesn't like her. A student will post another student's phone number or address with the intention of inviting sexual predators.

Duque, a former police detective who became the police department's expert on Internet safety and security, will present a two-hour talk tonight at McKinley High School for parents, teachers and other adults wanting to learn about how to protect kids on the Internet. A large portion of his talk will address cyber-harassment, a problem he says is growing.

Cyber-bullying is a general term, much like inappropriate behavior, he says. It's not necessarily illegal, although it can be hurtful. Cyber-bullying can become illegal when it crosses over into the realm of harassment and terroristic threatening.

"How you deal with this?" Duque said. "From (state Department of Education) policy, how do you enforce it or investigate it?"

When it comes to cyber-bullying, school administrators generally have limited jurisdiction, said Hillary Apana-McKee, education specialist with the DOE. Under current disciplinary rules, school principals can take corrective action against a student only for an offense that is committed on campus. But most of the time, cyber-attacks are launched from a student's home.

McKinley vice principal Neil Takamori said teachers and principals can get involved only when cyber-bullying spills onto campus, either through a fight or some other confrontation.

"I just had kids in my office today because one guy wrote something on his (Internet) space," Takamori said. "I don't even understand it. A lot of adults don't know how to track what kids are saying about each other online."

The DOE is in the process of changing its disciplinary rules to include cyber-bullying. Once instituted, the new definition will give administrators authority to discipline students for harassment online.

The department does not keep track of reported cyber-bullying instances, but Apana-McKee says that the DOE has seen only a handful of reports. Many cyber-bullying instances go unreported, she said.

"It's very limited to what we hear about in the halls," she said.

One of the most recent, prominent instances of cyber-bullying happened about a year and a half ago when a fight between three girls from Niu Valley Middle School and Sacred Hearts Academy was filmed by other students and posted on YouTube.

Apana-McKee says there have been instances of kids creating a video of teachers, using a cell phone, and posting it online under the label "She sucks."

"That's a form of harassment," she said.