In Houstonist's adolescence, we didn't have the Internet — we were forced to amuse ourselves by playing Connect Four, watching "The Facts of Life" and finding creative things to do with sticks and mud. But these days, kids can do almost anything on the Internet — including tattling on their classmates, thanks to an anonymous email-based system in place at several local schools.

The system is run by AnComm, a company based in Oxford, Miss., with an office in Houston. More than 40 schools nationwide use it, including Westfield High School in Spring and Hamilton Middle School in Cy-Fair; the system allows students to send e-mails about things other kids are doing, problems they're having at school and personal issues. The messages remain anonymous unless a student threatens to hurt him- or herself or someone else; false reports can get a student booted from the system.

In addition to letting school administrators respond — if they need to — to students' issues, the system lets officials see what the most-referenced problems are. Last year, the No. 1 issue reported on AnComm was bullying, followed by "cutting" (better known as self-mutilation, a surprising problem in schools). Though Sadie Woodward, head of counseling in the Cy-Fair school district, said it would be better to be able to hear students' issues face-to-face, the e-mail system helps counselors deal with problems when they might be too busy to meet with students one-on-one.