The internet provides an opportunity for individuals all around the world to communicate with one another; although this privilege has created the major issue of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is the use of social networking sites to harass, threaten or embarrass someone (Rouse, 2015 ). Well regarded author Richard Webster, asserts that over 80% of teenagers use social media regularly, (Webster, 2015 ) giving the notion that teenagers are major stakeholders. Queensland parliament offers a variety of laws in attempt to maintain order with cyber bullying, however Victoria offers fewer laws which are more specific to cyberbullying such as Brodie’s law. The following essay will analyse the strengths and limitations of both state’s laws to determine …show more content…
Cyberbullying primarily affects young teenagers as they are the main users of social media, thus exposing them to the issue regularly. Providing that teenagers are stakeholders, it can additionally be recognized that parents of said teenagers are affected by cyberbullying also. This is because, having their child experiencing such trauma can be a distressing and overwhelming experience. On the twelfth of January 2018, a cyberbullying case in Warwick, Queensland, demonstrated the brutality of this issue; fourteen year old Dolly Everett, unfortunately took her own life after being harassed online. Queensland’s criminal code act 1995, provides legislation in support of this case. A series of online harassment by an individual offers a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment or a fine of more than thirty thousand dollars (Australian legal information institute , 2018 ). This legislation thereby supports stakeholders involved in cyberbullying; depending on how extreme the case is. On the nineteenth of February 2018, Queensland formed a cyberbullying task force in response to Dolly’s cruel death (King, 2018 ). However, Dolly has not been the only victim of cyberbullying, yet Queensland only developed said task force this year. Thus, Queensland attempts to provide for stakeholders in cyberbullying, but have only recently began to take further …show more content…
Both states offer similar definitions for said crimes, therefore providing consistent laws throughout these jurisdictions. Although, when comparing Queensland’s and Victoria’s laws there are significantly more differences than similarities. Queensland parliament offers legislation for unlawful stalking, this crime consists of loitering and watching a person for an extended period of time, as well as the excessive use of technology to contact a person. However, this law does not specifically mention publishing content on social media relating to the person, therefore meaning this law does not benefit stakeholders in cyberbullying. Moreover, Victoria’s stalking legislation indicates that publishing excessively about a person on the internet is considered stalking (Australian legal information institute , 2018 ); thereby benefitting cyberbullying stakeholders. Victoria’s stalking legislation was influenced by the tragic death of Broadie Padlock; this legislation commonly goes by the name Brodie’s law. According to the official Victorian police website, five years after Brodie’s law was created there have been fifty eight offenders who have successfully been found guilty (Brodie's law- five years on , 2016). This demonstrates the efficiency of Victoria’s stalking legislation in comparison to Queensland.
Cyberbullying includes anything from making threats, to sending malicious messages and making derogatory comments (Karklins, 2012). Threatening another under Queensland and Victorian Law is illegal and is subject to a criminal penalty pursuant, as of Queensland Criminal Code Act 1899 (the Code) and the Victorian Crimes Act 1958 (the Crimes Act). Although provisions in both the Code and the Crimes Act make cyberbullying illegal – there are differences in their applications and outcomes. This paper compares the Victorian and Queensland legislation, attempts to provide an evaluation of the laws and makes recommendations to improve Queensland cyberbullying law considering the Victorian legislation.
Cyberbullying is a very controversial matter. People are starting to say that cyberbullies should be prosecuted for their actions. First of all, there are more important crimes to focus on like murder and theft than just prosecuting a kid who said something “offensive” to another kid. Also, the First Amendment protects cyberbullies to have freedom of speech and say stuff to other kids. To add on, just because someone “excludes” another kid form not joining a group, does not mean that they should be criminally prosecuted. If people are being cyberbullied, they should not use social media much.
There are related suicide cases such as that of Chanelle Rae, may justify dedicated legislative responses to cybercrime in Australia. In response to the problem at hand, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has noted that the growth of cyber bullying is related to the changing digital environment. It operates a cyber smart online helpline. Victoria’s government introduced tougher penalties for workplace and cyber bullies after the suicide of Brodie Panlock who was subject to harsh bullying in her work place. An anti-bullying legislations known as Brodie’s Law was commenced in June 2011 and made bullying a serious crime. Some may argue that there is no need for law reform as Cybercrimes can be prosecuted under other laws e.g. serious threats can constitute as assault or persistent online harassment may constitute as stalking. Law Reform in this area presents quite a number of challenges due to the rapidly changing international digital environment, and ease of online criminality. Specific legislation can possibly provide a definition of cyber-bullying, and lay out punishment and penalty for those involved in such activities, this will provide victims, parents and the police with a better
Harmful insults and acts of bullying are no longer restricted to the actual world. Cyber world is now infected with these issues in which technology and private information are instinctively used to constantly harm or bash emotionally hostilities towards a group or one particular individual. Social networks such as Facebook, twitter, and Google plus have been gaining immense popularity in the past years. With the popularity of these sites, the problems of cyber bullying, online sexual predators and accessibility to adult content also continue to grow. The younger generations are becoming more techno-friendly, with electronic devices such as tablets, computers, and cell phones. With this fact younger children are becoming more vulnerable and more likely to be confronted with these problems. These problems and issues of social discriminations are why there needs to be an age restriction or improved rules and provisions in order to prevent this.
180). Pittaro (2007) defines cyberstalking as the use of the internet, email, or other electronic communication devices to create a criminal level of intimidation, harassment, and fear in victims (Pittaro, 2007, p. 180). In this definition, the cyberstalker is one who carries out these acts when targeting a victim. What causes cyberstalking is rage, power, control, anger, and the victim’s actions and inactions (Pittaro, 2007, p. 180). Cyberstalkers use the internet to hide and conceal their identity, known as a veil of anonymity (Pittaro, 2007, p. 180). The majority of cyberstalkers are middle upper-class Caucasian males and many cyberstalkers have a prior criminal record, a history of substance abuse, or a personality disorder (Pittaro, 2007, p. 181). Although, victims of cyberstalking are often complete strangers who were contacted by a cyberstalker through the internet which accounts for about 50% of all cyberstalking incidents (Pittaro, 2007, p. 181). The difference between cyberstalking and regular stalking is the physical contact element between victim and perpetrator (Pittaro, 2007, p. 182). Another difference, is that the geographic proximity between the victim and the perpetrator is closer in regular stalking and much larger in cyberstalking as it can literally happen anywhere (Pittaro, 2007, p. 182). The main method perpetrators of cyberstalking utilize is email over other electronic communication devices and their main motives for cyberstalking are revenge/retaliation (Pittaro, 2007, p. 183). A study done by McFarlane and Bocij (2005) (as cited in Pittaro, 2007, p. 184) found that there are four types of
Technology evolves and advances as the times change. It has the potential to improve the lives of people by being a powerful communication tool - the Internet. However, when the Internet is misused and abused, it is flawed with frequent cyberbullying. It is a form of bullying with the use of technology and has been increasingly common. It is a moral imperative for Canada to deal with this phenomenon as it can greatly impact individuals.
As its definition suggests--“any behaviour performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others”. (King)--the suffering of victims can be immense. Numerous findings have proved the clear existence of the correlation between the victims of Cyberbullying and the increased levels of anxiety, emotional distress, depression, substance use and suicidal behaviour; as well as decreased levels of concentration, attendance, grades and self-esteem. (King) Despite the government’s involvement-- as of 2014, the new anti-cyber intimidation law allowed up to five years in prison for online distribution of photos without consent--people (especially minors) tend to blame themselves and retaliate via negative methods rather than positive to resolve the issue. Victims often commit self harm and put themselves into isolation.
In today’s society the world is evolving and things are getting more complex. Due to this fact, school districts are having a challenging time updating the suitable and required code of conducts for the schools and students alike. The code of conducts are required to be updated more and more recently, because of the lack of protection towards the school and students. Rules in some district’s code of conducts do not have a suitable punishment for a student’s actions. For example, if the code of conduct is not updated or have rules for a certain action, the schools will not be able to do anything about what the student has done. Districts need to update the code of conduct for actions that happen online such as on social media and that happen
This sort of phenomenon makes major headlines regularly in recent times and effects a clear majority of today’s youth. State and local lawmakers have taken steps to prevent this type of bullying by making illegal under several criminal law codes. Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics explained, “There were consistent associations between exposure to cyberbullying and increased likelihood of depression.” Cyberbullying became widespread among students with the rapid growth in use of cellular devices and the Internet. With this kind of technology bullies have the ability to send harmful messages to their recipients at any given time. This type of bullying is the hardest to control because it involves students but often happens off school grounds. However, because the evidence is material, students and parents could bring this evidence to the school and local police departments if a situation were to happen. Parents should be mindful of their child’s use of the internet and electronic messaging, cyberbullying usually takes place in a medium in which adults are seldom present (Mason, 2008). Also, instead of sending direct messages to other students, bullies use platforms such as social media and anonymous blogs to post harmful things for others to see. Educators must understand the significance of social media use to their students, especially
Internet usage in children and adolescents has been increasing in a steadily fashion in the past number of years and with the increase in internet usage, a new form of bullying has developed – Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can be defined as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person,” (Merriam-Webster, 2012). This form of bullying can come through various mediums including but not limited to text messages, emails, videos, and social networking sites. There is an overwhelming amount of information that defines cyber bullying, identifies the demographics of bullies and victims of cyber bullying, and identifies the outcomes of cyber bullying on victims. More focus needs to be placed on who the perpetrators of this form of violence are and how this form of violence is linked to traditional bullying. This will allow researchers and practitioners to move forward with research and implementation preventative methods and intervention once the problem has already occurred.
As we are living in the age of technology, we are seeing our youth being victimized by a new phenomenon of bullying, called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phones and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate repeated and hostile behavior by an individual or group, which is intended to harm others. Cyberbullying can also employ media such as PDAs, blogs, and social networks (Beckstrom, 2008). This form of bullying is progressive because it can happen instantly due to the technology involved, whereas traditional bullying tends to take longer to evolve and happens
will have the same effects. Next, a difference could also be cyberbulling does not happen at school, so there may be no teacher and no adult to tell (“Internet”). Cyberbullying could be as little as a text sent to a single person without anyone else knowing. Some people may be getting cyberbullied yet show no signs and others would be...
Cyberbullying should be a criminal offense because whether it’s bullying or cyberbullying, it still damages a person emotionally and physically. Admittedly, many will argue that it is crossing the line to force perpetrators behind bars when it is not even bullying, but some foul words thrown in social sites. However, there is no difference between cyberbullying and offline bullying when it is still an issue that constantly eats away at its victims, abusing them with hurtful words and messages. “The United States Department of Health and Human Services calculated the percentages of bullied victims, where 37% of teens have been physically bullied, while 52% of teens have been cyberbullied” (Cyber/Bullying Statistics). Studies shown indicate that there have been more cases of cyberbullying than offline bullying, whereas people believe that “cyberbullying is not real bullying” and “it is to speak out in what...
With technology progressing, students are moving past face to face hectoring, and are verbally bullying other through social media. Cyberbullying can sometimes become more harmful than verbal, physical, and emotional bullying due to victims, not feeling like they have an escape route because they are threatened repeatedly through text messages, e-mails, social media, etc. The worst part about cyberbullying is that the things posted can be anonymous; therefore, there is no blame for who posts what. A victim can suspect that someone is to blame for the actions done, but there is no proof to solve a possible ongoing issue. Cyberbullying and bullying are actually considered a crime when someone: physically assaults another person, gender or racism is talked about, violent or deadly threats are made, sexually texting, inappropriate photos, stalking,
The online bully’s goal is to make their target feel weak; these online bullies can be referred to as a cyber bully. Cyber bullying is the exercise of using technology to embarrass, threaten, harass, or target another person; according to its definition it occurs among young people (New, 4). It is usually performed by a child’s peers and surprisingly occurs early as the second grade (Jacobs 1). Cyber bullying can even be unintentional, especially through the use of emails, IMs, and text messages because the tone of the sender may be hard to depict. However, recurring emails, online posts, and texts are hardly ever unintentional (124). As the number of youths increase that have the availability to technology, cyber bullying is likely to continue to rise and continue to take its toll on youth. Due to its excessive effect that it has on children today, Cyber bullying should be taken more seriously.