Cyberbullying Legislation

This essay explores the legal framework surrounding cyberbullying in the UK, arguing for the need for new legislation to address the growing problem. It examines the impact of cyberbullying on individuals, particularly young people, and analyzes the role of social media companies in mitigating the issue. The essay concludes by advocating for stronger regulations to protect individuals from online harassment and promote a safer digital environment.

REASONS FOR THE
INTRODUCTION OF
NEW LEGISLATION
TO DEAL WITH
PROBLEM OF
CYBERBULLYING

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-
Cyber crime refers to the crime in relation with cyber bulling and effect on the reputation
of any person. Cyber bullying is an illegal activity. Cyber bulling includes the negative use of
internet mobile phones. A case in UK in which Elle Trowbridge. Need for legislation to deal
with Cyber Bullying. The personal data shared by people on networking sites is not secured

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Cyber bullying is an illegal activity caused by a person with the intention of spreading
rumors by emails, text messages and other electronic media.
The report will include the reason for the introduction of new legislation to deal with the
problem of Cyber bullying (Davis,2015). The legislation is introduced to protect the interest and
rights of person in country.
MAIN BODY
Cyber bullying
Cyber bulling is referred to the humiliation of person, causing trouble, and following the
person with wrong intentions. Cyber bulling includes the negative use of internet mobile phones,
smartphones and threatening of the person by sending text messages, phone calls and hacking of
the accounts on the social media. The social media sites includes the social networking sites,
messaging sites, gaming sites and chat rooms like twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Cyber
bulling is common in the young people and they are the major targets of the buller. Also the
bulling can take place in the office, in school or in the society itself. The Cyber bullying effects
the person socially , mentally and emotionally. There have been sites of person who get highly
demotivated by Cyber bullying and capture themselves in private areas (Young and et. al., 2016).
According to the report on medical conditions of Cyber victim, some cases shown that there is
high amount of angry, anxiety, loneliness and fear in the victims of Cyber crime. The victims in
some cases results in attempting suicide. There are several ways of bulling by which includes the
following-
 Bullying by spreading rumors and gossip.
 Threatening behavior
 Blackmail and grooming
 Abusive comments
 Inappropriate images
A case in UK in which Elle Trowbridge, a 16 year old girl who committed suicide. She
was victim of Cyber bullies when she was of 11 years of age. She have been bullied through
awkward text messages received on her phones (Foody and et. al., 2017). With the result of
constant torture she started self harming herself. Her parents took her to doctor and but
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unfortunately she never recovered and after the unbearable coming of message she killed herself.
There are several cases stating the effect of Cyber bullying on young children.
Cyber bullying and the Law-
In UK law there have been no legal definition for Cyber bulling. Moreover there are a
number of existing laws that can be applied for the Cyber crimes and online harassment of the
people. The various laws which are available for the Cyber bullying are-
 Protection from harassment Act 1997- it protects people from any wrong doing caused by
the act of another person.
 Malicious Communications Act 1988- it includes the protection against infringements of
rights and liabilities of the consumers in the economy (Deschamps and Mc Nutt, 2016).
 Communications Act 2003- this act relates with the matter in which communication
through the social sites, mobile phones and text messages are included.
 Breach of the Peace – this deals with disturbance in social environment.
 Defamation Act 2013- this relates to the cases which effects the reputation of another
person by written documents or any spoken words (Harrison, 2016).
Need for legislation to deal with Cyber Bullying-
As there are increasing of many cases in the Cyber crime and rapidly increasing of Cyber
bullying. The government of UK decided to upgrade its rules and regulations for the Cyber crime
the country. The Cyber crime is widely effecting the people in the country ,specially the young
age, school and college going children. In some cases the Cyber crime is sported in adults too.
Thus to increase a safety and protection among the people in the country the legislation for
Cyber bulling have been made.
The personal data shared by people on networking sites is not secured and there is
leakage of the information by the internet hackers which at the end results in Cyber bullying.
The regulations issued by government of UK proposes strict rules that requires firm to take
responsibility for their users and their safety (Yang, and Grinshteyn, 2016). It also make liable
the firms for the content on their products and service advertisement.
The new legislation states that social media companies shall be punishable with large
fines and penalties if they are not incapable of fulfilling the rules and regulations specified by
government. There have to be proper check on any lawful activities of its customers otherwise
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firms will be liable. The internet companies which break the rules specified by government, its
senior management can be held personally liable for the failings (Stylios and et.al., 2016).
With the newly introduced duty of care, it will require the social networking companies
taking extra responsibilities for the safety of their customers while providing them services
through special sites. The responsibilities of companies s more actively tackling the problems
caused by content or activity on their platforms.
The application of the rules and regulation preserve the rights and documents of clients of
famous social networking sites (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2016). It also helps in the maintenance
of confidentiality between the users of the apps.
CONCLUSIONS
The report concludes that the Cyber bullying have vast effect on young children and
adults. The report states that there are cases in which people who are Cyber victim harm
themselves. There are signs of mental, emotional and social disabilities in Cyber victims.
The report also states that Cyber crime is commenced by the wrongful use of social
networking sites, the personal documents, snaps of the related person (Samara and et. al., 2017).
Also the Cyber crime includes threatening of person by another person for leakage of substantial
information.
Furthermore report concludes that new legislation have been introduced by UK
government in order to reduce the Cyber crimes in the country. The new regulations governs the
firms to control the contents on their sites so that their can be protection of personal information
of their users (Cyber bullying and the Law,2019).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Davis, J., 2015. Legal Responses to Cyberbullying by Children: Old law or new?. UniSA Student
Law Review. (1). pp.52-61.
Young, H. and et. al., 2016. Cyberbullying and the role of the law in Australian schools: Views
of senior officials. Australian Journal of Education.60(1). pp.86-101.
Foody, M. and et. al., 2017. A review of cyberbullying legislation in Qatar: Considerations for
policy makers and educators. International journal of law and psychiatry.50. pp.45-51.
Deschamps, R. and Mc Nutt, K., 2016. Cyberbullying: What's the problem. Canadian Public
Administration.59(1). pp.45-71.
Harrison, T., 2016. Cultivating cyber-phronesis: a new educational approach to tackle
cyberbullying. Pastoral Care in Education.34(4). pp.232-244.
Yang, Y. T. and Grinshteyn, E., 2016. Safer cyberspace through legal intervention: A
comparative review of cyberbullying legislation. World Medical & Health Policy.8(4),
pp.458-477.
Stylios, I. C. and et.al., 2016, September. Communication Security & Cyberbullying: A Review
of the Legal Issues. In Proceedings of the South East European Design Automation,
Computer Engineering, Computer Networks and Social Media Conference (pp. 66-71).
ACM.
Shapiro, J. P. and Stefkovich, J. A., 2016.Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Samara, M. and et. al., 2017. Bullying and cyberbullying: their legal status and use in
psychological assessment. International journal of environmental research and public
health.14(12). p.1449.
Online-
Cyberbullying and the Law.2019. [online]. Available through. <https://www.anti-
bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/all-about-bullying/online-bullying/
cyberbullying-and-law>
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