What if a school shooting could be prevented just by you monitoring your child's on-line and cell phone activity?

While chances are unlikely, a recent UCLA study shows three in four teens said they've been cyber bullied -- online or through cell phones --at least once during the last year.

Only one in 10 report the abuse to parents.

"I guess someone got on the Internet and photo-shopped this girl, calling her a bad word, and then forwarded it to the school," says Colton Kelley, 11th Grade Student in the Houston County School system.

So, where do you come in?

"Parents tend to not really understand technology. They tend to overreact. They'll blame the technology and take the computer away, or the cellphone away. Really this is just an educational opportunity. We have to stop kids from creating the bullying situations or being silent observers. If you're child is sent to a Myspace page to make fun of another child, they're participating in this problem too," says Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate.

"The only ones that can do anything about is the parents. There the ones that can get on the computer, see what they're kids are doing and look at their phone. See what they send. See how they talk about other folks," says Kelley.

Many states, including Florida and Georgia, have made cyber bullying illegal.

These policies give school administrators the authority to help protect their students-- on or off campus.

Alabama does not have such a policy.

"As school officials, we're responsible for not only the academic efforts of students, but also their mental and social well-being." says Tim Pitchford, Superintendent of Houston County Schools.

Area schools do monitor what kids do on campus by restricting cell phone use, access to social websites, chat rooms and email.

"Bullying has been around for 100s of years, but in order for a student to perform academically, they have to feel comfortable at school. They cannot feel threatened. Those are things that we want to know about and we want to try to help them with their issues." says Pitchford.

News 4 spoke to one teenager who talked about an area girl whose boyfriend had a nude picture of her. When they broke up, that picture was sent all throughout Houston County Schools..

It's cases like these that can start with cyber bullying but end at the Sheriff's Office.

"Any issues that come to our knowledge from parents at home, from the school system, from the principal or the superintendents of schools, we'll investigate it. We'll check into it. If a case can be made, then a case can be made and an arrest will be made on those charges," says Captain Tony Gonzalez, Houston County Sheriff's Office.

It is difficult to enforce cyber bullying.

It's hard to prove, and unless there is a physical threat, It's rare Alabama's law enforcement can step in without a law in effect.

"This is a community effort with cyber bullying. We don't tolerate it with out adults, so we shouldn't tolerate it with out kids" says Gonzalez

There are programs like Cyberpatrol and Spector that allow you to keep tabs on everything kids do on Myspace and Facebook.

It also keep screen snapshots and a record of what kids write in chat and instant messages.

For more information, go to www.CyberPatrol.com or www.spectorsoft.com.

Tomorrow on News 4, we will introduce you to a local organization that's trying to stop cyber bullying.