Assessing the Adequacy of Cyberbullying Laws in Australia

This report examines the adequacy of cyberbullying laws in Australia, focusing on the increasing prevalence of cyberbullying and its impact on individuals and society. It discusses the existing legal framework, including the proposed Harmful Digital Communication (HDC) Bill, and evaluates its effect...Read More

Running head: ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
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1ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
In the recent times, the cyberbullying victims are approaching to law for both criminal
and civil cases to get justice. In the traditional forms bullying continues to exist and now in
this modern era cyber bullying is adapted. It has gradually shaped its presence in the life of
people through digital communication technologies and media (Heatheringto and Coyne
2017). The people address the high power imbalance between the bullies and them so that
some vindications can be obtained. Facebook is a social networking service and online social
media company. According to (Aph.gov.au. 2018) millions of households in Australia have
been subjected to internet abuses. Facebook is too facing the problem due to identity theft and
virus infections. Therefore it is important for the government of Australia to impose adequate
criminal laws and legal framework. The current cumulative effect of cyberbullying of people
in Australia, has therefore led to increase in suicide and self-harm.
While considering the vital fact, the adequacy of existing cyberbullying laws will be
examined. The role of education and self-regulation is important to consider while addressing
the bullying. Moreover, it is significant to ascertain Harmful Digital Communication (HDC)
Bill that is confined to cyberbullying and change is suggested for the proposed scheme
(Whittaker and Kowalski 2015).
Outline of Harmful Digital Communication Bill
The vital component of cyber bullying includes the harmful digital communication.
The bill would therefore develop a three-tier system to overcome the issue. At the initial
level, the bill would create an established approved agency. This would also be the ‘go to’
source for meditation and responsible for allegedly harmful digital communication through
Facebook that lead to harmful digital bullying. Moreover, the bill would also create new
criminal offence that is designed to combat the current cyberbullying laws. The regulations
will allow the law to grant new powers so that order can be given to remove any harmful

2ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
digital contents, identification of anonymous authors and corrections should be published so
that a proper right of reply can be imparted to the target for harmful digital communications.
Moreover, the bill would also propose alterations to the Crimes Act 1961 Therefore, it can
also adequately respond to various challenges that are posed by digital communications
(Aph.gov.au. 2018).
Background to the issue of Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying: In the earlier times, bullying refers to the verbal, physical and
relational aggressions that have been the social issues since a long time. Most of the bullying
generally occurs between young people and children. However, in the recent times bullying is
also common between adults in their workplaces and also leads to severe consequences.
According to Pabian and Vandebosch (2016), there is presently no academic consensus that is
what behavior leads to cyberbullying. It is usually focused on the severe interactions taking
place among the young generation using the internet and mobile phones. Vranjes et al.
(2018) defines cyberbullying as crime that is done to harass, embarrass or hurt somebody
through the application of mobile phones, internet and using other technologies like digital
camera. Due to cyberbullying severe case has been highlighted that has been a major factor
leading to self harm or suicides. Slonje, Smith and Frisén (2017), focused on popular
perception stating that cyberbullying generally occurs among young people. It is more
adverse than the traditional or face to face bullying. However, Whittaker and Kowalski
(2015) contended that online and cyberbullying is merely an advanced form of traditional
way of bullying that has adopted itself to the latest technology.
Cyberbullying leads to imbalance of power harm the target to defend themselves.
Therefore, the power imbalance and anonymity is given to the bullies online. Digital
communication could lead to the digital longevity of communications. Any harmful comment

3ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
on social networking sites like Facebook can also be viewed by various people. The comment
can easily be viewed by the public and cause harm to its target by sharing or liking the
comments (Heatheringto and Coyne 2017). Therefore, the HDC Bill would therefore
recognize the main issue that is created by digital longevity.
According to the reports cyberbullying is mostly conducted over on mobile phones or
through the internet. It is founded that out of the two methods, cyberbullying through mobile
phones is more common. Over 24.5% of the people have reported that they have been bullied
over mobile phones for at least once since the past few years. As per 17.5% people has
reported that they have via internet (Aph.gov.au. 2018). However, many cell phones user has
allowed accessing the online messaging services and internet. Cyberbullying also takes
various forms that include cyber stalking, online harassment, denigration, exclusion and
outing. On the other hand, Thomas, Connor and Scott (2015) commented that cyberbullying
messages include abuses, threats, humiliations, name calling, rumors, and demand and death
threats via social media such as Facebook.
How common is cyberbullying in Australia?
Baldry, Farrington and Sorrentino (2017) commented cyberbullying to be an
intentional act that leads to the interpersonal aggression, which involves more than one
person in the cyberspace. Over 21% of 14 to 15 year old are cyber bullied each year and
mostly, 16% of individuals belonging to 16 to 17 years age group is also reported for being
cyberbullied. In Australia, there are many non-legislative cybersafety measures, which
include non-enforceable and voluntary arrangements for complaint handlings on the social
sites of Facebook.
However as per Barlett, Gentile and Chew (2016), the exact situations of
cyberbullying is very difficult to ascertain as the young people generally does not report the

4ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
crime of cyberbullying to the adults. Moreover, the school or Ministry of Education does not
contain any national or official record relating to the incidents of cyberbullying. Recently,
cyberbullying is also very prevalent among the adults. Majority of the complaints that is filed
every month is related to intimidating, threatening, bullying or aggressive online behavior is
due to adults. On the other hand, as per Hinduja and Patchin (2017), it is a common
perception that bullying in Australia is increasing at a rapid rate, which is becoming quite
difficult to measure the distinction between ‘bullying’ and ‘violence’.
The Australian Government is set on establishing a ‘Children’s e-safety
commissioner, which would develop a complaint system for the removal of distressing and
harmful contents on the social media sites (Aph.gov.au. 2018). Over 43% of the kids have
been always bullied online. Moreover, one in four children has been bullied more than once.
Almost 80% of the teens use mobile phones on a regular basis (Waasdorp and Bradshaw,
2015). The young individual’s think that bullying through online sources is much easier to
take advantage than bullying in a person. They make the most prominent medium relating to
the cyber bullying. However, according to Hinduja and Patchin (2017), majority of teenagers
themselves agrees that cyber bullying is a very serious threat.
According to the policy of Facebook, the account holder or user of the social media
site should be at least 13 years of old before they make any account. Barlett, Gentile and
Chew (2016) commented that lead to only shifting the blame rather than a rigorous policy.
The help age of Facebook even instruct it users on how to report for accounts that are used by
underage children. According to the reports nearly 83 million accounts is fake. Nearly 28 %
of the Australian populations are fake that are related in the breach of terms and condition
related to Facebook. Most of the bullies create their fake profiles in order to antagonize their
peers. For an instance, a teen from Georgia sued her bullies by creating a fake profile. The
profile was made in the name of the victim and also included the victim’s distorted photo as

5ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
her profile picture. Later on as per the report of the officials, the profile was permanently
removed a week later.
The ‘cyberbullies’: Sometimes, it becomes quite difficult to draw a clear line between
the targets and the bullies. In majority of the cases the targets concerned are closely related in
either ways through family, peer groups, professionally or personally with the bully (Slonje,
Smith and Frisén 2017).
Impact of Cyberbullies on the Society:
As mentioned by Heatheringto and Coyne (2017), the physical affect of bullying
includes chronic illness, suicidal ideation and eating disorder among the individuals.
Moreover, this may also lead to a range of behavioral and psychological problems that could
lead to low self-esteem, insecurity and anxiety problems. It has also been argued that
cyberbullying negative consequences could be very severe than the traditional bullying. On
the other hand, as per Pabian and Vandebosch (2016), it has been often argued that young
people are less likely to perceive the risks than adults, which leads them to engage in unsafe
digital behavior. Furthermore, this leads the young children to skip their schools and
suspensions and detentions. These scenarios are frequently reported by the youth.
Cyberbullying is a very fatal problem in Australian society that could lead to severe
consequences on the target’s health. Therefore, it can be concluded cyberbullying has
increasingly became a major factor leading to suicide and has also caused severe distress
among its bullies. Australia should rapidly change its attitude towards cyberbullying due to
increasingly importance of digital communication technology in the lives of the people. The
current and existing laws needs to be re-examined value or significance of the proposed HDC
Bill should be properly assessed.

6ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
References:
Aph.gov.au. 2018. Terms of Reference – Parliament of Australia. [online] Available at:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitution
al_Affairs/Cyberbullying/Terms_of_Reference [Accessed 2 Mar. 2018].
Baldry, A.C., Farrington, D.P. and Sorrentino, A., 2017. School Bullying and Cyberbullying
Among Boys and Girls: Roles and Overlap. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment &
Trauma, 26(9), pp.937-951.
Barlett, C.P., Gentile, D.A. and Chew, C., 2016. Predicting cyberbullying from
anonymity. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5(2), p.171.
Brewer, G. and Kerslake, J., 2015. Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and
loneliness. Computers in human behavior, 48, pp.255-260.
Heatherington, W. and Coyne, I., 2017. Understanding individual experiences of
cyberbullying encountered through work. International Journal of Organization Theory &
Behavior, 17(2), pp.163-192.
Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J.W., 2017. Cultivating youth resilience to prevent bullying and
cyberbullying victimization. Child abuse & neglect, 73, pp.51-62.
Pabian, S. and Vandebosch, H., 2016. An investigation of short-term longitudinal
associations between social anxiety and victimization and perpetration of traditional bullying
and cyberbullying. Journal of youth and adolescence, 45(2), pp.328-339.
Slonje, R., Smith, P.K. and Frisén, A., 2017. Perceived reasons for the negative impact of
cyberbullying and traditional bullying. European Journal of Developmental
Psychology, 14(3), pp.295-310.

7ADEQUACY OF CYBERBULLYING LAWS
Thomas, H.J., Connor, J.P. and Scott, J.G., 2015. Integrating traditional bullying and
cyberbullying: challenges of definition and measurement in adolescents–a
review. Educational Psychology Review, 27(1), pp.135-152.
Vranjes, I., Baillien, E., Vandebosch, H., Erreygers, S. and De Witte, H., 2018. Kicking
someone in cyberspace when they are down: Testing the role of stressor evoked emotions on
exposure to workplace cyberbullying. Work & Stress, pp.1-21.
Waasdorp, T.E. and Bradshaw, C.P., 2015. The overlap between cyberbullying and
traditional bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 56(5), pp.483-488.
Whittaker, E. and Kowalski, R.M., 2015. Cyberbullying via social media. Journal of School
Violence, 14(1), pp.11-29.