Today students at Butler Intermediate High School heard from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, which sent representatives to the district to discuss cyberbullying.

It’s a topic which has caught the attention of the entire nation for years running at this point — and for good reason. It’s a poorly-defined and generally misunderstood phenomena that seems to be confounding our best attempts to address it.

A 2015 review of 36 studies on cyberbullying by pediatrics researchers at the University of Alberta tries to shed light on the largely unknown effects of bullying via social media sites.

The researchers found that about 23 percent of teenagers (ages 12 through 18) reported being targeted online. And, no surprise, lead researcher Michele Hamm said the team found “consistent associations” between cyberbullying and an increased likelihood of depression in victims. That falls in line with well-established findings regarding the effects of face-to-face bullying, which studies have shown can as much as double a juvenile’s risk of depression in adulthood.

Also in 2015, researchers at the University of Warwick, in Coventry, England, published a study which found that bullying victims were more at-risk for adult depression and anxiety than people who experienced neglect or sexual abuse as children.

Those findings are shocking and disturbing. They demand a response. And state lawmakers across America have been trying to formulate one for some time now. In 2015 Montana became the last state to pass an anti-bullying statute into law. That same year Pennsylvania updated its own harassment laws, making “cyber harassment” a third degree misdemeanor and clarifying the state’s definition of online bullying.

There continues to be a debate over not only the effectiveness of criminalizing this kind of behavior, but what bullying actually is. Look at all 50 anti-bullying laws, state by state, and you’ll find that none define the practice in exactly the same way.

That’s a symptom of a much larger problem: we can’t really agree upon what bullying actually is. Depending on who you talk to it’s anything from a normal childhood rite of passage to an ever-present social phenomena like microagressions — the petty slights by which majorities are rude to minority members of the group.

Both viewpoints — the idea that bullying is no big deal; and that every interpersonal conflict represents a serious assault — are equally dangerous.

So what is bullying, really? Here’s the American Psychological Association’s definition:

“A form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions. The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself, and does nothing to ‘cause’ the bullying.”

Butler schools seem to be on the right track when it comes to confronting the issue here — whether face-to-face or via social media. The district is helping students talk things over, and also runs a good citizenship program that rewards students for upstanding behavior.

This reveals a deeper grasp of the situation than many possess: adults’ biggest task is to set the tone — at school, at home, at sports practice, at after-school jobs. It can be more effective to ask questions than dictate solutions to a problem you don’t fully grasp.

And think what you like about today’s youth: they are always listening, reading, cataloging and responding to the world in which they live. It’s not so far-fetched to believe that, pushed to come up with their own strategies, kids will help address this issue more effectively than adults ever could have hoped to on our own.