Parents are being urged to educate their children about the threat of online bullies as part of national Anti-Bullying Week in the UK.

The week's events will include workshops and conferences in schools across the land to promote new ways to prevent bullying.

The growth of online bullying is causing concern for governments around the world, and over a third of British children have admitted to being bullied.

In the UK Symantec has published a guide for parents on how to cope with online bullying. Eight Ways to Deal with Cyberbullies encourages parents to sit down with their children and discuss the problem.

"There are two big differences between schoolyard bullying and cyber-bullying," said Symantec.

"The cyber-bully can use technology to spread offensive messages to many more people very quickly.

"And cellphones, PCs and the internet tend to give the cyber-bully a sense of anonymity, which emboldens him or her to make their offensive behaviour more vicious."

Meanwhile in the US the parents of a 13 year-old who committed suicide are pushing for a new law to make online bullying a crime.

The parents of Megan Meier claim that she hanged herself with an electrical cord after an adult neighbour constructed an online personality and used it to form a relationship online with the girl, before breaking it off with terms of abuse.

Despite a police investigation the parents claim that no action could be taken against the neighbour because no law had been broken. The parents are now considering legal action.