Analysis of New Legislation to Combat Cyberbullying in Australia

This report delves into the rationale for the introduction of new legislation aimed at addressing the growing issue of cyberbullying. It focuses on the Australian context, examining the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) and the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015, highlighting their roles in combating online harassment and protecting children. The report explores the functions of the eSafety Commission, the two-tiered scheme for social media services, and the powers granted to the Commissioner. It also touches upon the importance of anti-bullying legislation, the role of schools and parents, and the need for comprehensive strategies that include education, training, and monitoring. Furthermore, the report references global perspectives, including the Harmful Digital Communication Bill 2013 (NZ) and emphasizes the necessity of addressing cyberbullying through legal and social measures, including civil rights and anti-discrimination laws.

Reasons for the introduction of new legislation to deal with the problem of cyber bullying.
Cyberbullying or stalking is when someone is engaged in harassing through the use of
technology. It can happen to any person at any age or time. Some of the examples of cyber
bullying are posting bad messages which impacts the image of a person, or sending unwanted
messages, or sending abuses through the texts or the email. Hence, to curb this, the government
in Australia has come with handling the serious online harassment and online bullying through
Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). The Act explains about the offence, an individual does, y using
the internet, social media for harassing the people. The maximum penalty could be $30000 with
minimum 3 years of imprisonment.
The cyberbullying requires new legislation where the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015
has been laid down to coordinate and then lead the online safety efforts across government,
industry and the other non-profitable community. The eSafety Commission need to focus on the
enhancement of safety for Australian children. In 2017, the Act was amended for the expansion
of the Commissioner’s remit to promote and then enhance the online safety. The Act has been
able to establish the complaints service for the Australians who have been experienced about the
cyberbullying (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015). This enhancement has given a power to Commission
for investigating the complaints with material targeted at the Australian children. The Act is a
two-tiered scheme which is able to handle the removal of cyberbullying material from services of
social media (Yang & Grinshteyn, 2016). This includes the different levels that are based on the
regulatory standards:
a: The social media services are able to participate in Tier 1 for the schemes based on
cooperative standards, in regard to handle the social media.

b: The larger social media services are considered for Tier 2 services where Minister for
Communication is subjected to legally bind the notices and the civil penalties that are defined for
the non-compliance.
With this, the Commissioner has the power to issue the different notices for the
individuals who have been posting the wrong material and apologize the targeted child. The
other approach has been reflected through cyberbullying bill which is Harmful Digital
Communication Bill 2013 (NZ) which requires the complainant to resolve the problem though
approval of agency (Davis, 2015). It will provide the advice, information and support along with
taking down the orders, correcting and then revealing identities of the anonymous authors. With
time, bullying has no long be to the schools, colleges but has been expanding on a global
platform. It can occur anytime among the people which can have a major impact on the global
capital as well. As per the survey by Microsoft in 2012, there were 25 countries who were ranked
on top for bullying the young children. The study highlighted by 2016 Norton Cybersecurity
highlights about 51% of the parents see the online bullying is more than the offline bullying. The
focus of the laws is to regulate the cyberbullying, mainly for the children. The S.66A of ITA
helps in prescribing about the punishments for sending offensive and insulting communication
through the digital and the information communication technology.
The new legislation laws are important for bringing better solutions to growing problems
among the kids. One important thing to note is that the anti-bullying legislation holds the
teachers and the schools accountable for reporting in such cases. The preventing of the cyber-
bullying is upto students and the parents (Swearer et al., 2017). The laws can help to protect only
from unpleasant encounters, but one needs to be prepared to handle the situations at a social level
and then empower to seek help and take action. With this, cyberbullying has been considered as

a use of technology for bullying a person through the online medium. The enforcement of the
laws have cybercrime units which helps in detecting the problems about internet stalking etc.
The safety of the schools has been a major concern for the people and to take better legislative
actions. The laws are also for addressing the online harassment with some sites specializing to
protect the victim age of 18 and under. The strict legislation in Australia and worldwide, needs to
focus on the penalizing of the person or the team. There are research that suggest about the
programs which needs to be incorporated into the social curricula which includes online safety
and instructions to use the internet properly. The best possibility to avoid is through blocking the
messages and increasing security of the computer.
The use of the anti-bullying laws and the policies are one of the prevention strategy
which can change the different social norms. The researchers are focusing on civil rights and the
anti-discrimination laws to protect the groups of individuals who have been experiencing the
problem of harassment and discrimination. Some of the major components that could be used
for removing the problem of bullying in the society are:
a. Using the communication plan to notify the parents, students and the staff.
b. Training and education for the students
c. Planning for monitoring and seeking immediate help from the concern legal
authorities.
d. Implementing the local education area (LEA) policies.
The use of the state legislatures focus on the different policies and the education programs so that
it is easy for the students to handle the problems at their own level. The new laws will require to
focus on reporting and not tolerating the bullying behavior. The Education Act requires to be
improvised with the study of protecting oneself from bullying (Azam & Jasmin, 2018). Here, the

students should be provided a complete guidance to positive learning and working environment
and report any incident which is against the society, to the concerned authorities, immediately.
References
Azam, Z. and Jasmin, K.S., 2018. A STUDY ON CYBERBULLYING AMONG SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CHENNAI. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 120(5),
pp.263-273.
Davis, J., 2015. Legal Responses to Cyberbullying by Children: Old law or new?. UniSA Student
Law Review, (1), pp.52-61.
Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J.W., 2015. Cyberbullying legislation and case law. Implications for
School Policy and Practice. Pridobljeno, 5, p.2016.
Swearer, S.M., Martin, M., Brackett, M. and Palacios, R.A., 2017. Bullying intervention in
adolescence: The intersection of legislation, policies, and behavioral change. Adolescent
research review, 2(1), pp.23-35.
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.