Evaluate Cyberbullying Legislation: A Detailed Report - UWL

This report, submitted by a student, critically examines the compelling reasons for introducing new legislation to combat cyberbullying, a pervasive issue affecting individuals of all ages, especially teenagers. The report defines cyberbullying, outlining its various forms, including the use of electronic devices and communication tools like social media, and the resulting serious consequences. It delves into the current legal landscape, noting the absence of strong federal laws in many regions and the varying approaches taken by states. The report emphasizes the importance of new legislation in holding schools and teachers accountable, promoting awareness, and fostering a supportive environment for victims. It then explores key arguments supporting new legislation, such as the need for response and retaliation mechanisms, support for victims, and the protection of online accounts and privacy. The report also highlights preventative measures that legislation could provide, such as guidance on strong password creation and safe social media practices. The author concludes that new legislation is crucial for protecting users in the cyber world, providing legal recourse, and educating individuals on how to prevent and address cyberbullying effectively. The report references several academic sources to support its arguments.

Running head: CYBERBULLYING
CYBERBULLYING
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

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Introduction
Cyberbullying had become a growing problem faced by people of all ages especially
teenagers all over the world. This leads to various serious consequences. Cyberbullying can
be defined as a particular type of bullying that occurs with the use of electronic technology.
Electronic technology might include various devices including various equipment’s like
computers, tables, cell phones and many more. Some more devices include communication
tools like social media sites, chat, websites, text messages and many more. Cyberbullying
includes sending mean messages or similar emails that are posted on social networking sites
as well as embarrassing pictures, websites, videos, as well as websites. This particular
assignment discusses regarding the reasons for which new legislation are required in the
aspect of dealing with cyberbullying.
Discussion
There does not exist any tough law at federal level over more than half of the states in
the UK, some states have included various languages in their laws on the concept of
cyberbullying for the purpose of including the entire concept in the light of growing concern
among the parents of children. The basic components of these laws usually stay the same, in
that any sort of defamatory, aggressive behaviour, persistent demeaning towards a particular
individual would be met with the justice system of juvenile (Foody, Samara and El Asam
2017). New legislation are necessary to be introduced which would help in dealing with
cyberbullying. The introduction of new legislation is very important because it would hold
schools as well as teachers for the purpose of reporting as well as acting in such cases of
cyberbullying. In this case schools would be compelled by law for taking action in order to
correct behaviour or face various legal ramifications. Cyberbullying does not actually occur
very often as it is assumed by people. Besides these kinds have become vigilant in the

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concept of curbing the issues. This helps in raising awareness among people regarding the
safety against the crime of cyberbullying. This further creates a very positive, helping culture
in general for various kids (Coburn, Connolly and Roesch 2015). Schools functions along
with various materials had emphasized one the concept of ending the issue of cyberbullying
which has helped in strengthening comradery as well as respect among the students. Various
surveys had shown the fact that when the matter comes to how the parents feel regarding
punishing the bullies, most of them believed that if bullying takes place between the
classmates, the school must be provided the authority to handle the issues.
There are various reasons for which new legislation must be introduced for the
purpose of combatting the issues occurred due to cyberbullying, these reasons are as follows
Response and retaliation: usually victims of cybercrimes tend to respond to the
messages, emails and threats provided by bullies. They do not consult with any elder
guardian for the purpose of receiving their suggestions (Hinduja and Patchin 2015). In some
cases, aggressors are looking for a particular reaction, this is because they think that it would
give them power over the user. The users should remember the fact that getting back at a
certain bully turns the user into himself and might set off a particular chain reaction of cheap
actions. The legislation would help a user to remove them from this particular situation.
Help: in case the behaviour of the bully is bothering a particular user, legislation
would help the users to get rid of them.
Protecting the accounts: the legislation would help users to secure their passwords
from reach of any one.
Prevention measures: some prevention measures that would be provided to users with
the use of legislation include the ways how users can generate a strong password, they would
have some instructions like including a capital letter, a number and a special character while

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generating a password and not to generate one which is very easy to hack or guess (Coburn,
Connolly and Roesch 2015). The users would also be provided regarding the fact that actual
details regarding their business, address and some more persona details are not supposed to
be provided while creating a particular account on a social media platforms, they would be
provided details regarding the fact that cyberbullying usually occurs in the social media
platforms and hence they can take various measures for the purpose of staying safe from
them.
Some legislation could be introduced for the purpose of instituting various efforts for
anti-bullying because there has been no federal laws that prohibits the cyberbullying (Frensh
and Mulyadi 2018). Legislation would also provide the schools and various educational
institutes with the authority of taking certain steps against the crime of cyberbullying.
Legislation would not only prevent bullies from carrying out cyberbullying, it would also
help the users to gain more knowledge regarding the ways that could be used for the purpose
of preventing these bullies as well as their actions (Foody, Samara and El Asam 2017). Laws
regarding the concept of preventing or avoiding cyber security laws would allow the users to
not only feel secured and act accordingly against the bullies but also take legal actions
regarding the legal steps that must be taken by a user for the purpose of getting rid of these
activities. Besides these legislations would also help users to get some prevention measures
so that they are not attacked by the cybercriminals (Hinduja and Patchin 2015). Some
preventing measures that would be suggested by the legislation might be ways to create a
strong password, ways to make a strong account on social media platforms and many more.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that cyberbullying is one of the most
harmful cries that can affect people belonging to various age group, cyberbullying specially

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affects teenagers or children who had just come across the cyber world. They are usually the
easiest prey for the bullies because they are new into the world and they do not have much
idea regarding the ways that they could use in order to protect their data in the cyber world.
The do not have any idea regarding the vulnerability of their exposed data. For this purpose,
the government should introduce new legislation for the purpose of protecting users’ data in
the cyber world.

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References
Coburn, P.I., Connolly, D.A. and Roesch, R., 2015. Cyberbullying: Is federal criminal
legislation the solution?. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 57(4),
pp.566-579.
Foody, M., Samara, M., El Asam, A., Morsi, H. and Khattab, A., 2017. A review of
cyberbullying legislation in Qatar: Considerations for policy makers and
educators. International journal of law and psychiatry, 50, pp.45-51.
Frensh, W. and Mulyadi, M., 2018. Criminal policy on cyberbullying toward children. In E3S
Web of Conferences(Vol. 52, p. 00050). EDP Sciences.
Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J.W., 2015. Cyberbullying legislation and case law. Implications for
School Policy and Practice. Pridobljeno, 5, p.2016.