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Time to unpack the juggernaut?:The “cyberbullying” debates in
Canada
Jane [email protected]
Technology, Law and the Public InterestOttawa-HKU Conference
Hong Kong10 April 2014
34 girls and young women
policy process review
“cyberbullying”
Bullying Awareness Week
Peter MacKay
Bill C-13
The Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act
“what wouldn’t you do to protect an innocent
child?”
“horrible crime of cyberbullying” that “help is available and that hope is
everywhere”
Stephen Harper
“justice for their daughters”
government-orchestrated
Rehteah Parsons
“cyberbullying”
Amanda Todd
daughters
non-consensual distribution of intimate
images
hate speech based on sex, age, national origin and
mental or physical ability
false, indecent and harassing communications
using a telecommunications
system
vast majority
state surveillance powers
HELP
logical
tragic
one
richer and more complex
is
should
punitive
community
revenge porn
women & girlsLGBTQ
punitive individuated
multi-faceted strategy
sexisthomophobic
racistclassistableist
colonialist
sexualized attacks
girls and womenLGBTQ
shaming & despair
chosen
characterization
response
mélange
breadth & depth
Senate Standing Committee on Human
Rights
young people
law & order
nature & underlying causes
barriers to respondingrecommended responses
debatable
consensus
Cyberbullying is a serious problem.
“one of the worst problems facing young
people today”Christian Whalen
Acting Child and Youth Advocate, Office of the Ombudsman of New Brunswick
“part of the problem is that focusing on the term cyber-bullies is distracting
us from the facts” Helen Kennedy
Executive Director, EGALE
Cyberbullying is worse than traditional forms of
bullying.
“[The] immediacy and broad reach of new
technologies has made bullying easier, faster,
anonymous, more prevalent, permanent and
more cruel than ever before.”Kerry-Lynn D Findlay
Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice
examples
highly mediatized suicide cases
“… when we notice bullying, when the media has noticed it is when there are extreme cases … and that can cause a very reactive kind of situation. … What we need to do for education, and I think that is important in terms of the media, but not noteworthy because it is not a great headline, is address the fact that these everyday minor common things
start young.” Dean Faye Mishna
University of Toronto
Amanda ToddRehteah Parsons
“when backed by the oppressive cult of unrealistic body images
for young women and the powerful pressures on
adolescent women to seek personal validation in sexual
activity they may not be ready for” Randall Garrison
MP
“the police were trying to track … the person who criminally harassed, they didn't have all
the powers to do it. That's why the police boards are
supporting my bill. They feel they don't have the correct
tools.” Hedy Fry
MP
competing viewpoints
Is cyberbullying clearly defined?
elasticity
“no universally accepted definition”
Wendy CraigCo-Director, PREVnet
power imbalanceintention to harm
scope
6-65%
underlying factors
individualsystemic
“Biased-based cyberbullying, as well as traditional bullying, is linked to
larger social and public policy issues. While homophobia, racism, sexism and other forms of marginalization are apparent in cyberbullying, we
must confront these biases in society.” Dean Faye Mishna
University of Toronto
“The issues of sexual orientation, whether you are perceived to be gay, lesbian or bisexual, issues of gender
expression, whether you are seen to be as masculine as other boys or as
feminine as other girls, those are highly involved reasons that students are
targeted.”
Elizabeth MeyerConcordia University
“receiving sexual pictures, being asked to do
something sexual or being coerced through pressure
to send out a picture” Dean Faye Mishna
University of Toronto
Does cyberbullying produce extreme results
(like suicide)?
contributing factor
systemic discrimination
LGBTQAboriginal
natureunderlying factors
barriers to respondingrecommended courses of
action
gaps in criminal law
and law enforcement tools
new criminal offencesexpanded surveillance
tools
“I understand that a lot of police feel that the existing Criminal Code provisions are
not adequate. Personally, as a legal analyst, I am not sure I agree with that. There are a number of things in terms of defamatory libel, intimidation, criminal
harassment, assault — all kinds of things that can be applied ….”
Wayne MacKaySchulich School of Law
don’t address underlying issues
youth unaware of lawyouth believe they won’t get
caught
proactive multi-pronged strategy
individual behavioural/developmental
“safety” behaviour modification
social and empathy skills
human rightsmedia literacy
stereotype bustingrespect for diversity
“I do not know where the surprise is coming from with us as a community.
We need to be less surprised and more proactive. We need to challenge
the messages that youth are facing and give them the tools … [of] critical analysis, respectful disagreement and
human respect.”
Jeremy DiasJer’s Vision
the technology or the users?
inevitabilityneutrality
“the one reality we know is that technology will
remain omnipresent. We do not have the choice to
remove it.”David Birnbaum,
Executive Director, Quebec English School Boards
Association
“the root of the cyberbullying problem is
not social media sites and/or the Internet but rather the manner in which Internet users
interact while using social networking sites”Inspector Michael Lesage
Acting Director General National Aboriginal Policing
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
training the humans to suit the tech
“There are external applications that students download and put on their
Facebook; there are things like Compare People, How Ugly Are Your Friends, Rate My Friends, and Bathroom Wall. These
are all applications hosted by third-party companies. They are getting money to run these applications on Facebook, so these are businesses promoting bullying, in a
sense.” Alisha Virmani
Youth Leader Canadian Red Cross
“set up an environment in which everyone can have
access to all kinds of information about [young people], but by default”
Stan DavisCo-researcher
Youth Voice Project, Stop Bullying Now
Bill C-13
“cyberbullying”
sexual harassment
a problem
intellectual and political juggernaut
tragic highly mediatized cases
protecting children
nothing
obscured
“cyberbullying”
immediate recognition & concern
bloated
meaningfullong-lasting
unpack
diverse
candidly
respond meaningfully in the public interest
