Cyberbullying: A Need for a Separate Criminal Offence

Running Head: Advance Legal Research 0
Advance Legal Research
Business and Corporation Law
Student’s Name
11/3/2018

Advance Legal Research 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Research aim and objective.............................................................................................................3
Research Question...........................................................................................................................3
Methodology....................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
The adverse impact of Cyber Bullying............................................................................................5
Cyberbullying and current law........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................13
Legislations 13
Other Resources 13
Book/Journals 14

Advance Legal Research 2
Introduction
As the name implies Cyberbullying is a form of bullying in which a person uses electronics
means to threat the others1. Cyberbullying is also known as cyber harassment. Social media sites
are the lead mode of such bullying2. Many of researchers have seen that cyber-attacks bring
many of the negative impacts to the victims and should be controlled at the initial level. A
bullying activity can be identified as repetitive behavior or can be identified as an activity that
intends to harm others. There are many activities happening around that can be treated as cyber
bullying, however, this is to be stated that not every negative interaction on social media can be
termed as cyber bullying. Research also suggests that there are interactions on social media that
can lead to peer pressure and negative emotions but cannot be considered as cyber-attack
because an intention to threat others do not present there. There are many types of cyber-attack
such as cyber stalking and trolling.
In the current scenario, where the use of technology is no more a critical thing and is available in
every other hand; cyberbullying is increasing fastly. An act of cyberbullying can disclose the
personal data of a victim or can provide other harms to the same3. The recent rise of mobile apps
and smartphones have increased the issue4. In conjunction with this, more use of the internet also
helping the cyber-buyers. Cyber-attack is an offense and different nations have their different
laws on the same. Prevention of such crime is a concern for the government itself and therefore
1 Sheri Bauman, Donna Cross and Jenny L. Walker, ‘Principles of Cyberbullying Research: Definitions, Measures,
and Methodology’ (Routledge 2013)
2 Wan Ng, ‘New Digital Technology in Education: Conceptualizing Professional Learning for Educators’ (Springer
2015)
3 Manish Gupta, Handbook of Research on Emerging Developments in Data Privacy (IGI Global 2014) 335
4 Dailymail.co.uk, ‘Young children who own a smartphone are at greater risk of bullying, and are MORE likely to
pick on others’ < https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4993234/Youngsters-mobile-devices-risk-
bullying.html> accessed on 05 November 2018

Advance Legal Research 3
there is a need to have a look at the current laws. By looking after the increasing cyberbullying
issue in the society, this is to be stated that there is a need to give this offense some special
attention and therefore the current scenario needs to be reviewed. In the given dissertation, the
focus will be made to cybercrimes, current situation, and the needed changes.
Research aim and objective
The research is being made on the topic of cyber bullying, which is essential to understand the
true impact of the same. Cyberbullying is not a topic to ignore and one needs to know about the
consequences that the same can lead to a victim. After the study of the presented dissertation,
one would be able to understand that why there is a need to declare the cyberbullying a separate
criminal offense. In addition to this, cyberbullying has been a much-debated topic in the past few
years as many of the people are affecting in a negative manner cause of the same. The lead
objective behind wiring and presentation of this dissertation is to understand the seriousness of
the issue of cyberbullying and to develop reasoning that what are the needs to deal with this issue
even more carefully.
Research Question
The main topic of the study is to check the impacts and harms of cyberbullying and requirement
to declare the same a separate offence. The research question for this dissertation is to check that
whether there should be a separate criminal offence of cyber bullying.