Parent Choices for Struggling Teens guest Katie Gill, actress and star of Lifeline Made for TV movie “Betrayed at 17.” talks about this movie that revisits the issues in the popular movie of a few years ago, Mean Girls. It has been updated for the age of the Internet, and discusses the role of her character and the other characters about cyber bullying.

Bonners Ferry, ID -- (SBWire) -- 12/09/2011 --Twenty first century bullying has been dubbed”cyber bullying” and everywhere you look today, you see young teen’s texting, face booking and tweeting. And all of these mediums of electronic text have become the new way to spread the bullying around. This hot topic was featured today on Lon Woodbury's Internet Talk Radio Show: "Parent Choices for Struggling Teens" on LATalkRadio, with special guest: actress, Katie Gill. Katie stars in the Lifetime Television movie” Betrayed at 17”, which premiered on October 9, 2011.

“Betrayed at 17”, focuses on this subject, wherein an innocent high school girl has a sex tape go viral after the popular jock charms her into bed and tapes the whole thing. Carleigh (played by Katie Gill) is a jealous ex-girlfriend who decides that cyber bullying is the path to happiness and high school power.

Asked how it felt to play a bully, Katie shared “I felt awful saying mean things in the movie. I wasn’t a bully in school, but I did experience bullying myself when I was younger. Girls would tease me and make fun of me because of my clothing.” And in doing this particular movie, “I learned how prevalent (cyber bullying) was in Jr. High and middle school.”

The statistics show nearly 42% of kids ages 11-19 have been bullied online, 9 out of 10 middle school students have been hurt by online bullying, 21% have received mean or threatening emails and the increase in bullying continues with over 84% of adolescents using cell phones weekly. Text messaging and sending photos/pictures via cell phone and the use of FaceBook are the most popular devices to use.

Girls are twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying. Girls tend to spread rumors, make fun of someone or exclude others, whereas boys tend to threaten to fight or hurt someone or send messages of a sexual nature. The appealing part of cyber bullying is the anonymity of it; a person can “hide” behind screen names and email addresses.

“How do you think schools and parents should handle this?” asked Lon and Katie replied “it is so important that these young kids talk to someone, like a parent, a friend, a guidance counselor…someone. And parents need to be aware of what their kids are doing. My mom was a good support for me when I was going through it myself.”

To listen to the full interview go to: Mean Girls 2.0: Cyber Bullying, at http://www.latalkradio.com/Players/Lon-120511.shtml on LATalkRadio.

Lon Woodbury is the owner/founder of Woodbury Reports Inc. and http://www.strugglingteens.com. He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984 and is the host of Parent choices for Struggling Teens at http://www.latalkradio.com/Lon.php on LATalkRadio Mondays at 12:00 Noon, Pacific Time, Channel One.

Actress Katie Gill started her career in show business in the 1995 film: Money Train. Since then, she has appeared in a number of films and TV shows including episodes of: CSI, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami; Bones, The Cleaner, The Mentalist and Days of Our Lives. Katie’s film work includes: Date Night, Ay Lav Yu, An American Carol, Drillbit Taylor and Family Man. Katie Gill is the daughter of actress Morgan Brittany (Dallas) and veteran stuntman and action director Jack Gill.