Should Cyber-Bullying Be Outlawed?

In recent months, cyber-bullying has resulted in the tragic suicides of several teens and has received unprecedented media attention.

Now, outraged parents and educators are demanding that laws be written to deal specifically with cyber-bullying in order to prevent it before it’s too late. Actually, 44 states already have laws regarding bullying and 30 of those states have also outlawed bullying via the Internet and phones.

But do these laws really prevent bullying, especially in the relative anarchy and anonymity of the Internet? And who is responsible for enforcing them?

Three Arguments in Favor of Cyber-Bullying Legislation

1. Cyber-bullying is even more devastating than the old-fashioned kind

According to a survey of more than 800 teens, 35% suffered Internet harassment in the past year. According to an expert at the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, cyber-bullying is more harmful than in-person bullying because it can happen at any time. Getting shoved around in the locker room is embarrassing, but it’s unlikely that thousands of people would witness the humiliation, as they can on the Internet. Worse yet, the cyber-bullies can remain completely anonymous.

2. Cyber-bullying interferes with a child’s right to an education

According to this opinion, a culture of intimidation in a school usually occurs when educators have given up on trying to stop bullying at all. Cyber-bullying laws are the result of frustration on the part of legislators who want to hold teachers and principals accountable for what goes on under their noses.

3. Cyber-bullying invades children’s privacy…forever

So much of cyber-bullying tends to involve posting terribly personal information (sometimes true, sometimes false) about another person in a very public place. That information can remain searchable and retrievable long after the bullying stops and the victim has reached adulthood. This lawyer believes that laws must evolve to address how people communicate with each other and to deter future bullying with a legal means to prosecute bullies.

Three Arguments Opposed to Cyber-Bullying Legislation

1. Laws make teachers responsible for what kids do at home

Laws in 19 states require public schools to have anti-bullying policies that cover incidents of cyber-bullying that take place outside of school. They also require schools to provide anti-cyber-bullying training as part of their current bullying training for school employees.

Some experts have suggested that schools are treading on thin ice when they try to regulate off-campus behavior. But some courts have upheld the discipline if schools can prove that bullying interferes with a student’s education.

2. Laws make bullying worse

There must be a reason why both the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists have issued research-based opinion papers recommending that schools refrain from punishing bullies as a matter of policy.

According to this article, 86% of published studies show that school anti-bullying programs either had no benefit or made the problem even worse. 14% of published studies showed that anti-bullying programs produced a minor reduction in bullying. Not one study showed a major reduction in bullying.

3. Laws infringe on freedom of speech

Each state addresses electronic forms of harassment differently. For example, in Wisconsin it is a misdemeanor crime to threaten to “inflict injury or personal harm” via the Internet. It is also illegal to “harass, annoy or otherwise offend” another person electronically.

“Annoy or otherwise offend”? Isn’t that the whole point of the Internet?

While cyber-bullying laws have been written with teenagers in mind, many legislators have discussed the potential chilling effect that these laws could have on provocative speech, which is rampant on the Internet. Politicians, businesspeople, authors and academics all regularly post intentionally annoying things about each other online. Would they be subject to lawsuits?

What do you think, if anything, should be done about cyber-bullying?