Cyber-Bullying: An Old Threat in a New Avatar

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Table of Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................4

Research Objectives and Questions................................................................5

Research Hypothesis.......................................................................................7

Questionnaire..................................................................................................8

Data Sources.................................................................................................10

Books:.........................................................................................................10

Articles:......................................................................................................10

Cases:.........................................................................................................10

Summaries....................................................................................................11

Book Summary...........................................................................................11

Article Summary.........................................................................................12

Case Summary...........................................................................................13

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Subject : Law and Human RightsArea : Cyber Law, Cyber Security and Human RightsTopic : A critical analysis of the existing legal framework to tackle cyber-bullying

Cyber-Bullying: An Old Threat in a New Avatar

Abstract

Advancements in technology have resulted in the overall development of the society and have facilitated the free interaction between humans on a global scale. However, just as a coin has two sides, these technological developments have a dark side. Apart from the obvious examples of nuclear warfare and worldwide pollution which have captured global attention, there are various growing issues that still remain unnoticed. This project focuses on such an area, which has been a result of the developments in the field of communication technology: Cyber-bullying, an old threat that was limited to schools and playgrounds, which has crept its way into the digital realm, violating the basic human rights. People being subject to bullying of any kind often feel defenseless to repel or put up a fight against their aggressors. Cyber-bullying augments a new dimension to this helplessness with its ability to reach the victims 24/7.

The finger has been pointed towards web-users, parents, teachers, policy-makers and social networking sites to bring a stop to it. That being said, to what extent can restrictions be imposed to prevent cyber-bullying? There has been a lot of debate on filtering technology and measures like banning social network sites as means to stop cyber-bullying, as they seem to violate the right to freedom of expression.

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Through this project, the author makes an honest attempt to inform the readers of the effects of cyber-bullying on children and people across different walks of life. The project also examines the current approach towards its prevention and analyzes the debate on the restrictive measures and the freedom of expression. The author concludes by laying down suggestive measures that can be adopted by concerned parties who can make an impact to curb this growing menace.

Research Objectives and Questions

1. To understand the concept of cyber-bullying.

a. What is cyber-bullying?

b. What are the various forms by which cyber-bullying is committed?

c. Who are the victims of cyber-bullying and what is its impact on them?

2. To analyze whether cyber-bullying violates the basic human rights.

a. What are the rights that are violated by the commission of cyber-bullying?

b. In what ways does cyber-bullying affect the right to privacy?

c. How does cyber-bullying result in defamation consequentially violating the right to live with human dignity?

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3. To examine the existing legal framework and the measures taken at schools and colleges to address cyber-bullying.

a. What are the existing laws in place in various countries to tackle cyber-bullying and to consider them as grounds for civil and criminal liability?

b. What are the measures taken in schools and colleges to combat cyber-bullying?

c. What are the measures adopted by social networking sites, who inadvertently provide potential platforms for cyber-bullying, to prevent it?

4. To delve into the criticism against the various restrictive measures adopted by different parties to prevent cyber-bullying.

a. Are the existing restrictive methods adopted for curbing cyber-bullying effective?

b. Are the schools and colleges justified in adopting these measures which curtail the right to freedom of expression?

c. Do these zero tolerance policies make things worse by creating toxic environments that perpetuate cyber bullying rather than fostering positive or respectful learning environments?

5. To propose/recommend effective regulatory measures that should be adopted by various parties to stop cyber-bullying.

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a. What are the regulatory policies that are required to replace the existing laws to fight cyber-bullying more effectively?

b. Owing to the criticism against the various restrictive measures adopted by schools, social networking sites and internet service providers, what alternative steps can balance the need for protection against cyber-bullying and the freedom of expression?

c. What role can the parents play in preventing cyber-bullying since most of these activities take place on computers at homes?

Research Hypothesis

1. Cyber-bullying is in gross violation of the basic human rights, particularly the right to live with human dignity and the right to privacy.

2. Cyber-bullying is not limited to minors, rather it affects people across all walks of life.

3. The legal framework that is in place to curb cyber-bullying is inadequate.

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4. The restrictive measures adopted to put a stop to cyber-bullying violate the right to freedom of expression.

5. There is a lot of ‘finger pointing at each other’ concerning the duty to prevent cyber-bullying, when what is actually required is a collective effort by web-users, parents, teachers, social networking sites and policy makers towards the same.

Questionnaire

The Questions are posed to parents, teachers, school administrative bodies, social networking sites, internet service providers and web-users.

1. Are you aware of what cyber bullying is?

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Yes No

2. Do you agree to the claim that the practice of cyber-bullying results in the violation of the basic human rights?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

3. Do you think the protection offered by the existing law towards minors against cyber-bullying should be extended to people across all walks of life?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

4. Do you believe that parental responsibility can be a better remedy to prevent cyber-bullying since most of these activities take place on computers at homes?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

5. Have you adopted restrictive measures such as filtering and banning in your institution/website/home to deter cyber-bullying?

Yes No

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6. Do you think the schools, social networking sites and internet service providers are justified in imposing such restrictions to curb cyber-bullying?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

7. Do you agree to the criticism raised against these preventive measures being violative of the right to freedom of expression?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

8. Do you believe that policy-makers and the laws enacted by them are the only factors that can make a significant positive impact on the prevention of cyber-bullying?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

9. Do you think the measures adopted by the social networking sites and internet service providers to regulate cyber-bullying are inadequate and are in need of a better protection mechanism?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

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10. Do you believe that a collective effort by all the parties (web-users, parents, teachers, schools,

social networking sites, internet service providers and policy-makers) is the best and most

effective solution to stop cyber-bullying?

Completely Agree

Agree Not sure Disagree

Completely Disagree

Data Sources The Researcher has relied on primary sources such as articles, books,

journals, case laws and internet sources for drafting the current research abstracts, questionnaire and the proposed hypothesis.

Books:

Shariff, Shaheen, Cyber-Bullying: Issues and Solutions for the School, the Classroom and the Home, (New York: Routledge, 2008)

Kowalski, Robin M., et al., Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2008)

Jaishankar, K., Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behaviour, (Florida: CRC Press, 2011)

Hinduja, Sameer & Patchin, Justin W., Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, (California: Corwin, 2008)

Articles:

Manuel, Rose, Natasha, Cyber-Bullying: Its Recent Emergence and Needed Legislation to Protect Adolescent Victims, 13 Loy. J. Pub. Int. L. 219 (2011-2012)

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Hayward, John O., Anti-Cyber Bullying Statutes: Threat to Student Free Speech, 59 Clev. St. L. Rev. 85 (2011)

Butler, Des, et al., Cyber Bullying In Schools and the Law: Is There an Effective Means of Addressing the Power Imbalance?, 16 eLaw J. 84 (2009)

Cases:

US v. Drew, [259 F.R.D. 449 (C.D. Cal. 2009)]

A.B. v. Bragg Communications Inc., [2012 SCC 46 (CanLII)]

State of New Jersey v. Dharun Ravi, [New Jersey Superior Court (2012)]

Summaries

Book Summary

Shariff, Shaheen, Cyber-Bullying: Issues and Solutions for the School, the Classroom and the Home, (New York: Routledge, 2008)

Shaheen Shariff’s Cyber Bullying: Issues and Solutions takes a comprehensive approach towards the issue of cyber bullying by covering all the necessary angles. The book highlights some of the issues connected with cyber-bullying internationally, analyzing the cultural and contextual differences in the manner in which the youth from different parts of the world are engaging and considers the legal and policy responses that have emerged at the global levels to address cyber-bullying. The book is a

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valuable guide for educators, policy makers, parents, the media, technology providers and indeed anyone with a stake in understanding the complexities of cyber-bullying. It seeks to reconceptualize the way the general public think about education, student citizenship, socially responsible discourse and discipline in a digitized world.

The author begins the book by distinguishing cyber-bullying from its traditional counter-part and delves into the question whether the cyberspace is a battleground or an opportunity. The following chapter deals with the biological and sociological influences of cyber-bullying on children’s behavior. The third chapter talks about a transnational approach towards curbing cyber-bullying, providing the readers with real-life cases so that they can have a better grip over the impact of these activities. Next, the author goes on to examine the power hierarchies among the stakeholders within school systems that ultimately control what children learn and express on and offline, pointing it as the primary reason why typical approaches to address traditional and cyber-bullying do not work. She then makes a detailed analysis on the debate concerning the balancing of freedom of expression and the privacy and safety measures in cyberspace. The book concludes by proposing certain harmonious solutions that can address the claims of all and that which can ensure a better protection of children from cyber-bullying.

Article Summary

Manuel, Rose, Natasha, Cyber-Bullying: Its Recent Emergence and Needed Legislation to Protect Adolescent Victims, 13 Loy. J. Pub. Int. L. 219 (2011-2012)

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Natasha Rose Manuel’s Cyber-bullying: Its Recent Emergence and Needed Legislation to Protect Adolescent Victims is one comment among the very few articles on cyber-bullying that explores all angles of the growing menace of cyber-bullying. The article focusses on the plight of adolescent victims of cyber-bullying and highlights the reason for its recent emergence, by providing real instances and analyzing the impact it has had on the victims and their families. It examines in depth the existing legal framework in place to combat cyber-bullying and makes an attempt to evaluate what impact a federal legislation can have on the prevention of cyber-bullying with special reference to the Megan Meier Cyber-bullying Prevention Act which has been introduced in the House of Representatives, as the article primarily center on the US position towards cyber-bullying. The article also clearly lays down the extent of responsibility each stakeholder has in fighting cyber-bullying.

While Part I of the comment discusses the recent emergence of cyber-bullying, analyzing its reasons and its devastating effect on minors, the subsequent Part discusses why the current laws fail to protect the victims, against whom these victims can bring a case, why private action is the best means of obtaining relief and how current means of relief prove insufficient. The final Part discusses how to criminalize the act and analyzes the failure of the already proposed legislation criminalizing cyber-bullying. Additionally, the section also discusses the proposed federal legislation that would consider the failure of the bill, and recommends federal legislation that would successfully afford relief to adolescent victims of cyber-bullying.

Considering the dearth of literature on the subject, this article, though limited to the US scenario, captures all the necessary aspects of cyber-bullying particularly its impacts on the victims and the society, in a general tone.

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Case Summary

US v. Drew, [259 F.R.D. 449 (C.D. Cal. 2009)]

The case revolves around the commission of cyber-bullying by a woman named Lori Drew, who created a fake account in the social networking site ‘MySpace’ to harass Megan Meier, a 13 year old child, which ultimately instigated the child to commit suicide. The defendant was charged with violating the provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by using a fictitious name and age on the MySpace account as against the terms of service of the site, and using it to make hurtful comments. In the instant case, though the jury found that the defendant had not committed the act with malicious intent, but was guilty of criminally violating the terms of service agreement, the guilty verdict was later set aside.

The prosecution argued that the defendant’s subsequent visits to the site amounted to “unauthorized access” as per the terms of the CFAA which was agreed to by the jury. This can be seen as creative exercise of the provisions of the CFAA, which primarily targets hacking and trademark theft. However, the Judge George Wu of the District Court of California overturned the verdict and clearly stated that the violation of the terms of service potentially violated the CFAA, however, he noted that these violations could not be criminal, as to do so would be unconstitutionally vague. He further observed that taking the breach of a website’s terms of service alone as the relevant consideration for CFAA violations would place too much control in the hands of the website operators and too little notice to the website users.

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The case is of extreme importance as it lays down the scope of the cybercrime statutes, with tremendously high stakes for the civil liberties of every internet user. The case has also resulted in significant legislative responses as a lot of States in the US have enacted legislations to address cyber-bullying. An attempt was made to enact a federal legislation (Megan Meier Cyber-bullying Prevention Act) as well to set a federal standard definition for the term ‘cyber-bullying’. However, the proposal was criticized as overboard and did not advance.

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