Cyber Bullying: UK Legislation and Social Media Impact

This essay provides an overview of cyber bullying, defining it as harassment through electronic means, particularly on social media. It explores the prevalence of cyber bullying, especially among teenagers in the UK, citing statistics on the experiences of both girls and boys. The paper delves into the reasons for introducing new legislation, emphasizing the increasing societal pressure to protect young people from online abuse and the lack of specific laws addressing cyber bullying in the UK. It highlights the importance of legislation in protecting individual rights, increasing awareness of responsible internet use, and deterring misuse of social media. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for a separate legal framework to address and prevent cyber bullying, ensuring the safety and well-being of individuals in the digital age, and providing a formal process to resolve disputes related to online harassment.

Running head: CYBER BULLYING
Cyber Bullying
5/13/2019

CYBER BULLYING 1
Cyber Bullying
Cyberbullying is said to be a form of harassment that is done through electronic means.
Cyberbullying is also called as online bullying. In today's advanced era, this has become very
common among teenagers because people are misusing the advanced technological features
and trying to meet their illegal means (Maryville University, 2019). Cyberbullying is
something when an individual or a group of people, harass or bully through the internet,
mainly on social media sites. Harmful bulling can comprise threats, sexual remarks, posting
rumors. The intent of this paper is to highlight the term Cyber Bullying and laws related to
cyberbullying. In addition to this, the paper is majorly talking about the reasons for the
introduction of new legislation related to cyberbullying or online bullying.
Cyberbullying in the United Kingdom
According to the survey conducted by Opinium for the children’s charity Plan International
UK, comprised of 1002 young people from the age group of 11 to 18. From the total number
of participants, it has been identified that around 235 from 486 girls reported online abuse, in
comparison to the 202 of 510 boys. From the analysis, it was concluded that almost half of
the girls in the United Kingdom go through or experience some type of abuse or harassment
in different social media sites. On the other side, around 40% of the boys experience
harassment in social media sites (Marsh, 2017). In addition to this, the survey identified that
the major pressure of cyberbullying is on young people, but the type of abuse they receive is
diverse between the genders.
Social media had a major influence on how female gender looks at them. Around half of the
girls said that they feel pressure from social media in order to look at a certain manner, in
comparison to around one out of three boys (Marsh, 2017).

CYBER BULLYING 2
Reasons for Introduction of New Legislation for Cyber Bullying
The key reason for the introduction of New Legislation related to Cyber Bullying is the
increasing pressure of society for the change in the community and stopping abuse against
young people over the internet. The pressure of society is forcing the government to get
involved in the changes in the present legislation due to increasing harassments on social
media sites. However, there has been resistance to announcing precise legislation that could
be used to deal with online trolling and harassment and the government has always believed
that people must be self-regulated whenever conceivable, to deal with the issues that arise
while working in the industry (Parliament Business, 2017).
There is no particular law that takes care and protects the rights of individual dealing with
cyberbullying, abuse and harassment in the United Kingdom, in spite of increasing pressure
from society (Samara, Burbidge and Asam, 2017). This results in increasing the requirement
and a reason for the introduction of the new and separate legislation for protecting people
from Cyber Bullying.
An increasing number of cyberbullying or online bullying among young people is another
major reason which demands the introduction of separate legislation related to cyberbullying
such that people can feel safe and take proper actions for the illegal actions adopted by other
people through the internet and safeguard themselves from these type of threats. Cyber billing
legislation is very much required in the United Kingdom and all over the world in order to
reduce and eliminate the actions of people towards misusing internet as well as social media
sites (Donegan, 2012). There must be a federal law that must be realistic in bullying offline
and online. In few of the cases, when bullying is related to the race or ethnicity, sex, religion,
color, disability, national or origin, bulling edges with annoyance and schools are lawfully
obliged to discuss it.

CYBER BULLYING 3
The introduction of the cyberbullying in the United Kingdom market and even in different
world's economies will be focused on protecting the basic rights and liberties of the citizens
of the country. There are different laws that are framed in the society for the protection of
individual, group, or business entity. The legislation related to cyberbullying is the protection
of the rights of the individual over the internet and social media sites. The law of bullying
will protect the individual especially youngsters.
The law related to cyberbullying must be introduced in the society for increasing awareness
of people regarding their rights in terms of using the internet and social media sites. In
addition to this, it will make them aware of how to make proper use of these advanced
technologies and social sites. The awareness related to a particular law is very essential in
society such that people can use them at a proper time whenever required (Bullying UK,
2019).
The established law related to cyberbullying will also make people understand how to react
and behave in the society such that no one gets hurt and their image can be protected in
society.
The legislation for Cyber Bullying will also illustrate and aware the defaulters regarding the
outcomes or consequences of misusing social media sites and internet for fulfilling their
illegal want. It is very important to make aware these types of people who are planning to be
part of online bullying such that they could be threatening to stop their illegal activities.
It is known that disputes in society are unavoidable because it is related to people who have
various needs, views, values, and wants (Lumen, 2019). The law provides a formal way or
direction to solve the dispute with proper guidance and procedure of government bodies as
well as responsible officers.

CYBER BULLYING 4
From the above analysis, it could be concluded that there is a need of separate legislation
related to cyberbullying or online bullying such that there must be a proper law for the
protection of people that are being harassed or abused by these means.

CYBER BULLYING 5
References
Bullying UK (2019) Cyber bullying [online]. Available from
https://www.bullying.co.uk/cyberbullying/ [accessed 13 May 2019]
Donegan, R. (2012) Bullying and Cyberbullying: History, Statistics, Law, Prevention and
Analysis. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 3(1), 33-42.
Lumen (2019) The Meaning and Purposes of Law [online]. Available from
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-introbusiness/chapter/meaning-and-purposes-of-
the-law/ [accessed 13 May 2019]
Marsh, S. (2017) Half of UK girls are bullied on social media, says survey [online].
Available from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/14/half-uk-girls-bullied-
social-media-survey [accessed 13 May 2019]
Maryville University (2019) What Is Cyberbullying? An Overview for Students, Parents, and
Teachers [online]. Available from https://online.maryville.edu/blog/what-is-cyberbullying-
an-overview-for-students-parents-and-teachers/ [accessed 13 May 2019]
Parliament Business (2017) Online harassment and cyber bullying [online]. Available from
https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7967 [accessed 13
May 2019]
Samara, M., Burbidge, V., and Asam, A.E. (2017) Bullying and Cyberbullying: Their Legal
Status and Use in Psychological Assessment. International Journal of Environment and
Public Health, 14(12), 1149.

CYBER BULLYING 6