Adequacy of Current Cyber Bullying Laws in Criminal Code

This document discusses the adequacy of the Criminal Code in relation to cyber-bullying and the adequacy of procedures, policies, practices, and other matters adopted by social media platforms to combat cyber-bullying among teenagers and children. It also highlights the prevalence of cyber-bullying in Australia, the types of cyber-bullying, and the existing laws in the Commonwealth for capturing cyber-bullying. The document concludes with the need for legislative reform and the consideration of guiding principles for human rights obligations and rules of laws.

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Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Author:
Email:
Phone:
To,
ABC Corp.
Date:
Re: Adequacy of Current Cyber Bullying Laws in Criminal Code
Dear Sir,
This submission has been prepared for your query for addressing the adequacy of the
Criminal Code in relation to the cyber-bullying and the adequacy of all the procedures, policies,
practices and any other matters adopted by the social media platforms that could be considered
as relevant in combating cyber-bullying especially among the teenagers and the children.
Providing adequate laws for combatting the cyber bullying is important for the Australian
Criminal Justice System. There have been multiple tragic deaths by suicide of students who have
been the victims of cyber-bullying all around the country in the recent years. Cyber bullying can
be defined as a type of bullying harassment that have occurs over any electronic means. Cyber
bullying has become very common among the teenagers and the children. Rights of cyber
bullying include coaching rumours, sexual remarks, threats, personal remarks of a person, hate
speech. Bullying is repeated behaviour with an intention for harm. Because of cyber bullying the
victims affected are seen to be experience low self esteem, increased suicide tendency and many
emotional responses which are negative that is seen to be including the emotion of being

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frustrated, angry, scared or depressed (Brewer, & Kerslake, 2015). There are multiple types of
cyber bullying. Of all the cyber bullying forms internet trolling can we say it is the most common
form of it present (Baldry, Farrington & Sorrentino, 2017). Another form of cyber bullying can
be said as cyberstalking in which person uses electronic communications to stock a person which
causes credible threat towards the victim. Although cyber bullying is similar in nature to normal
bullying there are some visible differences. In cyber bullying the victims of any don't know the
identification of the person bowling them or why they having targeted for being a victim. As in
cyber bullying the content used for harassment of the victim can be spread and shared easily
Among many people and is accessible for a long time that it can have a wide reaching effect on
the victim. The cyber bullies can also continue to harass someone by sending emails or text
messages or calls or by making public reactions like repeated threats, defamatory or false
accusations, sexual remarks online forums which would make the person a subject of ridicule to
everyone (Kowalski & Giumetti, 2017). The cyber bullies may further be seen to be disclosing
the personal data of the victim on any website or forum by way of impersonating the person for
creating fake accounts for commenting as their victim a for which the victim would be defamed,
discredited or ridiculed.
According to the Australian e-safety Commissioner one in every five children and one
in every ten adult has been experiencing cyberbullying for image-based abuse in average in a
year. According to the Commissioner new statistics show that high rise of child sexual abuse
material which include where children are increasingly caused by offenders to be creating
pornography themselves rather than through direct contact with an offender. The average age of
victims of cyber bullying is 14 years the girls are seen as being bullied more then the boys. As
per the statistics released by Australian government approximately one in every one in four

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Australian student of 4th to 9th year are bullied every few weeks, 83% of the people who harass
others online are also seen as bullies in real life as well, teenagers over the age of 15 are most
likely to be involved in the online bullying. An average of 2.1 % report for student is done by the
school staff every year for online bullying (Bullying No Way, 2019).
There are multiple laws in the Commonwealth for capturing cyberbullying. A recent
report by the Parliament of Australia provides the adequacy of the existing laws for cyber
bullying in Australia (Aph, 2018). In the report a detailed analysis has been made for the existing
laws in the Criminal Code Act 1995 for cyber bullying and other policies, practices in the social
media platforms. The report was produced in front of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs
References Committee on 29th November 2017, and the following matters were seen as being
referred-
The adequacy of existing offences in the Criminal Code of the Commonwealth and of all the
criminal laws of the state and the territory for capturing cyber bullying, that included : (a) the
broadcasts of assaults and other crimes by way of social media platforms; (b) the application of
the provision of section 474.17 of the Criminal Code of the Commonwealth 'Using a carriage
service to menace, harass or cause offence', and the adequacy of the penalty, in particular where
the victim of cyber bullying has self-harmed or committed suicide; (c) the adequacy of the
policies, procedures and practices of social media platforms in the prevention and for the address
of cyber bullying; (d) other measures that have been used for combatting cyber bullying mostly
between school children and the youths; and (e) other matters in relation to the subject.
In the report presented by the Parliament of Australia it had been argued by the Mental
Health Commissions of Australia that the cyber bullying is not just a fundamental legal problem
but is a social one. Similar arguments were seen as been made by many of the submitters. The

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existing sections in the Criminal Code of the Commonwealth are not seen as defining the term
“cyber bullying”, however there are a number of sections in the Code that could be seen as
relevant to the cyber bullying. These sections are:
 section 474.14 (using a telecommunications network with intention to commit a serious
offence);
 section 474.15 (using carriage service for making threat);
 section 474.16 (using carriage service for creating a hoax threat);
 section 474.17 (using carriage service for creating menace, harass or cause offence); and
 section 474.29A (using carriage service for publishing suicide related material).
Of all these provisions, section 474.17 can be considered as the most notable, offence under
this section carries a maximum penalty of imprisonment of 3 years. As per section 474.14(1)
a person would be committing an offence if the person uses a carriage service in a way, either
by the method of use or by the communication content, which any reasonable person would
consider to be menacing, offensive or harassing.
According to many submitters there should be consideration for the legislative reform as
the current regimes are not completely adequate. According to the arguments presented by
the Victorian Women Lawyers, because of the current judicial interpretations the application
of the provisions of section 474.17 can be seen as being limited for providing justice and is
not enough for the conducts that would be simply hurting or wounding the feelings of the
recipient as per the thoughts of any reasonable person.
In the report the submitters also considered the roles of the procedures, policies, and
practices by the social media platforms for addressing cyber bullying. According to the

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words of many submitters it can be said that social media platforms often times respond to
complaints in a very slow or inadequate manner. As per the evidence presented by social
media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and the Digital Industry Group Incorporated
(DIGI) to the committee it was highlighted by each of the groups that all the social media
platforms operate under certain ‘terms of services’ or ‘Community Guidelines’. There have
also been implications made to the committee by the social media platforms for the
implementation of specific tools for the improvement of the safety of the users.
In consideration of the adequacy of existing offences in the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) of
the Commonwealth and the criminal laws of all the states and territories for the capturing of
cyber bullying, it can be considered that the Government of Australia is required to be careful for
certain guiding principles which can be seen as including certain human rights obligations and
rules of laws.

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Reference
Aph. (2018). Adequacy of existing offences in the Commonwealth Criminal Code and of state
and territory criminal laws to capture cyberbullying – Parliament of Australia. Retrieved
11 September 2019, from
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitu
tional_Affairs/Cyberbullying
Baldry, A. C., Farrington, D. P., & Sorrentino, A. (2017). School bullying and cyberbullying
among boys and girls: Roles and overlap. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment &
Trauma, 26(9), 937-951.
Brewer, G., & Kerslake, J. (2015). Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and
loneliness. Computers in human behavior, 48, 255-260.
Bullying No Way. (2019). Facts and figures. Retrieved 11 September 2019, from
https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/WhatIsBullying/FactsAndFigures
Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)
Kowalski, R. M., & Giumetti, G. W. (2017). Bullying in the digital age. In Cybercrime and its
victims (pp. 167-186). Routledge.