Bullying across the country is declining, but it's being replaced by a similar menace: cyber bullying.

Dominic Appleton said his son has been the victim of bullies. He said the problem got so bad his son had to change schools twice.

"He did get in a couple fights, he had to defend himself that's going to happen, when one of these kids has had enough, they're going to strike back because they've had enough," said Appleton.

The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice have both released new data showing that bullying is down for students ages 12 to 18. The same information shows that cyber bullying, on the other hand is up 2 percent.

"It used to be sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me, but now that's not true. Words will hurt you, and it's much more cross-sectional, cross computer," said psychologist Dr. Sheldon Kaplan.

Dr. Kaplan is a licensed psychologist and he said many of his patients have suffered from bullying. He thinks bullying is going down because schools are being more proactive about the problem. But cyber bullying is a whole other story.

"Social media is exploding in this country," said Dr. Kaplan. "Kids are just trying to make it through school, just try to make it through adolescence, and that's already hard enough."

No matter what kind of bullying, parents like Dominic Appleton are worried that kids are not speaking up about bullies.

"Are they going to say anything? No because they don't want to make things get worse than what they already are," said Appleton.