ASS112-2 Cybercrime & Society Report: Cyberbullying among Teenagers

This report provides a detailed examination of cyberbullying among teenagers, a significant cybercrime issue in the UK. It explores the debates, public understanding, and awareness surrounding cyber harassment, highlighting factors such as peer influence, low self-esteem, and access to technology. The report critically analyzes existing policies, laws, and criminal justice interventions in the UK, including acts like the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Furthermore, it examines the approaches taken by Poland and Sweden to combat cyber harassment, including legal regulations and preventative measures. The report concludes by suggesting best practices for reducing cyber harassment in the UK, such as increasing awareness, documenting evidence, and utilizing blocking and reporting mechanisms. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to aid students in their studies.

Cyber bullying among teenagers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Explore the current debates, discussion and public understanding and awareness of your
chosen crime................................................................................................................................3
2. Critically examine existing policy, laws, criminal justice interventions/responses and
research around the issue.............................................................................................................4
3. Explaining what Poland and Sweden are doing on this issue and using which of the best
practices.......................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Cyber bullying among the teenagers is directly affecting their childhood and somehow it
is bringing impact on their growth in all kind of activities, as there are many types of cyber crime
and one of them will be discussed here. Cyber harassment is unacceptable in whole world it
carries various purpose of threatening, harassing etc. and how it affects individual behaviour.
This report will going to discuss leading issue going to discuss, current debate and public
understanding and how public be aware about the crime and in brief show about the existing
policies, criminal laws, justice on the cyber harassment in UK along with that this report has
knowledge that how Poland and Sweden face this issue and which practise will be best to solve
this.
MAIN BODY
1. Explore the current debates, discussion and public understanding and awareness of your
chosen crime.
Cyber harassment can be defined as an unacceptable behaviour by an individual on the
cyber space which they carry out for the purpose of threatening, humiliating, harassing, terrifying
and stalking someone over the internet. It has been determined that this one of leading issues
which falls under the category of cyber-crimes among the teenagers in the United Kingdom. It
has been determined that around 34% of the individuals falling under the category of teenagers
have experienced harassment and bullying while playing mobile games over the internet.
It has been determined that there are several factors which leads to an increase in the
cyber harassment cases among the teenagers in United Kingdom. According to the results of a
research, it has been analysed that the most common factors due to which children at very young
involve themselves within such cybercrimes is because of company of their peers within their
schools. Teenagers influence each other from their individual behaviour and influence their
friends into doing the same (Stevens, Nurse, and Arief, 2021). Some teenagers harass other
people on the internet because they might have been a victim of a similar case which influences
them into doing the same with other people over the internet too. Another reason associated with
an increase in the cybercrime rate with respect to the cyber harassment among the teenagers
include low self-esteem, jealousy, unequal social status, bad treatment by their own friends and
most importantly, the access to smart phones and internet at a very young age.

Teenagers like to show off their social status and like to gain attention from their peers,
this makes them feel good. However, not every child in a particular classroom belongs to a
similar social circle, income background and posh environment. While some belong to extremely
rich families and some children struggle hard to even get a recognition. Similarly, when the
teenagers face any kind of discrimination within their society, class or even between a group of
friends, it hampers their self-confidence and badly affects their morale and develops a feeling of
jealousy, hatred, bitterness and distrust. These feelings give rise to such crimes carried out by
teenagers. When an individual has to face discrimination by their own friends, it influences them
to carry out bad behaviour with those people in a way which causes potential harm to the identity
of the victim but at the same time, hides the identity of the culprit.
It has become essential, in today’s times to create awareness among the children,
teenagers and their parents about the conduct of such an activity can ruin the lives of the both the
teenagers, i.e., the victim and the culprit (Charmaraman, and et.al 2018). Studies suggests that
the victims of cyber harassment can develop the psychological problems among themselves
which include poor self-control, low self-confidence, depression, and anxiety. On the other hand,
today, it is quite easy to identify the culprit has committed the crime and the government takes
actions against them for the same. The punishment involves imprisonment for a long time which
affects the personal development as well as the individual life of a children. Therefore, it is
necessary organization to take a step forward to create awareness among the audience.
2. Critically examine existing policy, laws, criminal justice interventions/responses and research
around the issue.
Cyber bullying or harassment is of type of torturing or bullying someone which involves
person as a victim being harassed, humiliated and embarrassed that is by the medium via
internet, mobile phone or by any social media. Some people believe that this not a serious issues
but, it is not true. What could be involved in cyber harass ? Any harassment caused through
electronic device is considered as cyber harassment (Millman, 2019).
Virtual mobbing : encourage other people to harass or torture someone on social media.
Trolling : posting some messages which involves something that provoke an angry response.
Baiting : Accusing someone and threatening them of being involved in any type of sexual
activity.

Flaming : Abusing someone or making fun of someone in very bad harassed way in live chat or
in live comments.
Cyber harassment is one of the criminal offence in UK and related to that victim can
report it to police directly (Chahal, 2019). It could affect adults as well as children. Police officer
does investigate and report there finding to the crown prosecution service (CPS) who decides
that case will go further proceed to court. Online harass is not as specific crime offence in UK,
here are other criminal laws to take serious actions. This includes obscene publications act 1959,
communication act 2003, Equality Act 2010, malicious communication Act 1988, public order
act 1986, computer misuse act 1990, sexual offence Act 2003, Education and inspection act
2006, People protection from harassment act (1997), and protection of freedom act (2012) could
be used in UK (Hosani and et.al, 2019). National society for the prevention of cruelty to children
says that cyber harassing is increasing amongst children like : sending threatening or abusive text
messages, sharing or creating embarrassing photos/ images.
Relatively there are some existing policies that government bring in action for Cyber-harassment
as they used the five pillar strategies
Pillar 1: strengthening UK cyber ecosystem, making partnership between government,
academia and industry by investing in people and skills.
Pillar 2: building prosperous and resilient digital UK, reducing the cyber crime risk so people
can use it in more frequent way and it helps them to grow and use it as economic benefit by
feeling safe and secured online.
Pillar 3: Leading in technology to cyber power, developing in industrial capacity to safe and
secure future of internet.
Pillar 4:making advance in leadership and influence them for more secure and open
international order, working with government and industry partner to share the expertise in UK
cyber power.
Pillar 5: Detecting our advisories for enhancing security in UK through cyberspace.
There are some laws which are specifically for harassment : which are protection from
harassment act, 1997 was sufficient for prosecute bullying conducted using social media,
similarly doing communication also takes place so malicious communications act 1988 conduct.
Before 2017 government has announced some (internet) safety strategies on online safety (Rosli

and et.al., 2021). Cyber power is the ability to protect and promote national interests in
cyberspace.
Vision of UK government is till 2030 it will continue to lead responsibilities and make
democratic cyber power. Cyber harassment are combined with other form of harassment like
unsolicited phone calls, emails or messages.
One of the most potential solution for cyber harassment is that internet user should use
self protective strategy to minimize the vulnerability. Some of which are regularly used offline
like blocking contact so it should also be used in cyber space also (Reyns, 2020). National centre
for cyberstalking research (NCCR) has provided the basic for discussion, plans, decision and
training programme by UK government. Centre is providing expertise and much expertise
working in different fields which includes Computer science and law.
3. Explaining what Poland and Sweden are doing on this issue and using which of the best
practices.
Poland has passed the panel code as 190a, in this crime of stalking has described. In
Poland this article came into force on June 2011. This panel code is against persistent
harassment, stalking, threatening. This same penalty works for those who simulate another
person or any other personal data (Smith, 2018). Whoever cause feeling of threat and
significance and using person's privacy will have penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3
years. When there was a new regulation it also added the concern on using personal data or
personal image of another person to cause any kind of harm it should not need to occur on
regular basis. 190A of panel code attempt to commit suicide would have penalty of deprivation
up to 10 years. Nowadays Poland using legal regulation to protect children, youth against any
violence on the basis of civil code and panel code. It is impossible to take a case towards child,
minor or young under 17 without cooperation of with parents. In the violence exists towards
young under 18 parents, guardians take legal actions. Sweden taken actions to protect children
from harassment is talking about risk on internet to protect them from being harassed and online
harassment. Among the research came to known that children time on internet is most frequent
and there are no limitations of using (Strand, 2020). They spent almost ¾ of the day in using
internet. One of the most common method to protect the children is monitoring internet usage of
child. When it was asked about if their child being bullied online most of the parents said that
their child never exposed, there were only 3% of this type of parents. Regarding parental

awareness of cyber bullying, social network was the most pointed point for cyber bullying.
Social media is the main platform to spread hate and increase cyber harassment.
Best practices to handle cyber harassment
For the purpose of reducing the rate of existing cases of cyber harassment in the United
Kingdom, it is essential for the government of United Kingdom to take certain measures which
could help them in reducing the cyber crimes including the cyber harassment among the
teenagers. The best practices with respect to the cyber harassment includes the following:
Increasing awareness
In order to reduce the cases of cyber harassment in the boundaries of United Kingdom it
is important for the government to create awareness about the harmful impacts of the cyber
harassment on the victims (Ferrier, and Garud-Patkar, 2018). It is important to make sure that the
parents of the teenagers already know about what their child is doing within the school or college
or even at homes because cyber harassment can affect lives of the culprit and the victim.
Therefore, the parents should keep an eye on their child and monitor the activities that they are
doing and stop them if they find anything suspicious. Also, the teenagers and the parents should
know that they have the right to complain against what they have been facing.
Document everything
In today's times, it is easier to find the culprit on the internet. However, in order to be on
the safer side, the victim should screenshot the chat or and kind of proof which states that they
have been facing harassment by someone over the internet (Hinduja, and Patchin, 2019).
Documenting the data makes it easier for the cyber crime department as they have the proof
stating what the teenager or victim has been facing. This will work as an additional evidence
help the investigation department to take actions in order to stop the abuse and punish the culprit.
Block, and report
In today's times, the social media applications do know the increasing cyber crime over
these apps. Therefore, they provide the users with the features to block someone if they unsafe
from someone over the internet. This will restrict the blocked user from accessing or viewing the
profile of the users (Sung, 2018.). Another feature that the social media applications provides
their users is to report the account which they might feel is uploading unappropriated content
over the internet, or sending someone unappropriated messages or violating the community

guidelines of a particular application. This will send a message to the application and as a result
of which, the app will delete the reported account.
These practices may help the government in minimizing the cases of cyber harassment
within the United Kingdom and develop a safer space for the teenagers within the country.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be stated that teenagers in the United Kingdom have been
dealing with Cyber Harassment within the nation. The present report includes the discussions in
relation to the cyber harassment and discusses the policies in relation to the cyber harassment
within the nation. It also covers the best practices which can help the government in reducing the
cyber harassment rate.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chahal and et.al., 2019. Cyber stalking: Technological form of sexual harassment. Int. J. Emerg.
Technol. 10. pp.367-373.
Charmaraman, L., and et.al 2018. Asian American social media use: From cyber dependence and
cyber harassment to saving face. Asian American journal of psychology, 9(1), p.72.
Ferrier, M. and Garud-Patkar, N., 2018. TrollBusters: Fighting online harassment of women
journalists. In Mediating misogyny (pp. 311-332). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J.W., 2019. Connecting adolescent suicide to the severity of bullying
and cyberbullying. Journal of school violence, 18(3), pp.333-346.
Hosani and et.al, 2019, November. A comparative analysis of Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking
Laws in the UAE, US, UK and Canada. In 2019 IEEE/ACS 16th International
Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
Millman, C.M., Winder, B. and Griffiths, M.D., 2019. UK-based police officers' perceptions of,
and role in investigating, cyber-harassment as a crime. In Social Issues Surrounding
Harassment and Assault: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 113-130).
Reyns, B.W. and Fissel, E.R., 2020. Cyberstalking. The Palgrave handbook of international
cybercrime and cyberdeviance, pp.1283-1306.
Rosli and et.al., 2021. Governing the Risks of Cyber Bullying in the Workplace During the Era
of Covid-19. Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH). 6(10).
pp.334-342.
Smith, S., 2018. Book Review: Haters: Harassment, Abuse and Violence Online. Journal of
International Women's Studies. 19(2). pp.261-263.
Stevens, F., Nurse, J.R. and Arief, B., 2021. Cyber stalking, cyber harassment, and adult mental
health: A systematic review. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(6),
pp.367-376.
Stevens, F., Nurse, J.R. and Arief, B., 2021. Cyber stalking, cyber harassment, and adult mental
health: A systematic review. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(6),
pp.367-376.

Strand, S., 2020. Risk assessment and management of stalking in Sweden: The importance of
fear as a victim vulnerability factor. Psycho-criminological approaches to stalking
behavior: The international perspective, pp.269-286.
Sung, Y.H., 2018. Book review of cyber bullying approaches, consequences and
interventions. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 12(1), pp.353-361.