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May 15, 2009 - By Margaret Zhou
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As communication between young people occurs more and more through the use of technology such as instant messaging, text messages, Facebook and MySpace, tactics of harassment have adapted to suit the times. The age of the schoolyard bully who taunted a victim in front of a jeering audience has been replaced by the era of degrading anonymous text messages, the spreading of humiliating photos and the telling of nasty lies online.
The effects of online bullying on its victims may be just as bad, or even worse, than the effects caused by traditional bullying. Several extreme cases in which teens have been driven to suicide by cyber bullies have occurred in the last few years. In one 2006 case, 13-year-old Megan Meier hanged herself in her closet when Josh Evans, a boy she frequently chatted with on MySpace, told her that he didn’t want to be friends anymore. The boy said that he had heard Meier wasn’t “a very nice person,†and some girls Meier knew, including a neighbor from down the street, joined in the conversation to taunt Meier, prompting her suicide. Weeks afterward, the mother of a neighboring girl who harassed Meier made a statement to the police in which she confessed she had created the Josh Evans profile as a tool to discover what Megan would say about her daughter. Although at that time Drew admitted she talked to Meier online as “Josh Evans,†her most recent statement claims it was her daughter who had the conversations and that she had never been involved.
The Meier case demonstrates the ethical necessity of legislation that punishes online harassment. While Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor accounts at her trial last year, it has been extremely hard for prosecutors to convince the judge that Drew deserves jail time rather than just the sentenced probation because there is no real legislated “crime†they can accuse her of. Many states have passed bills that aim to punish cyber bullies and ensure that the dilemma of the Meier case is not repeated; the federal government is making the same attempt. One such bill that was re-introduced to the House of Representatives last month by California Congresswoman Linda T. Sanchez is called the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act, and states that “Whoever transmits in … any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined … or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.â€
One major concern with such legislation and the reason why the Megan Meier Act was not considered upon its proposal last year, is that the limitations placed on electronic communication are too broad and will restrict free speech.
While it is true that a repressive law could backfire on the situation, restricting legitimate speech and causing public opposition toward such prevention acts, this does not mean that the matter should be simply pushed aside for later. Congress and state legislatures need to discuss the moral and constitutional implications with First Amendment lawyers to determine a suitable compromise. In a 2007 study conducted by the Journal of Adolescent Health, 34% of youth surveyed reported having been harassed online. 8% of them reported frequent harassment, and harassment mostly took the form of rude and degrading comments. Researchers have correlated victimization by traditional bullying with depression, problems in school, difficulty making friends, loneliness and problem behaviors such as smoking and drinking. Dr. Michele Ybarra, a recognized researcher in Web-related health issues for young people and president of the nonprofit Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc., claims it’s possible that similar characteristics are true for youth who bully and are bullied online as well, but research remains to be done in this area.
In addition, a Journal of Adolescent Health study found that detentions and suspensions, skipping school and especially weapon carrying were each more frequently reported by youth who had been harassed online. Those who were harassed online were eight times as likely to report carrying a weapon to school in the last 30 days as other students. These results are consistent with Dr. Ybarra’s findings that youth who receive rude or nasty comments via text messaging are significantly more likely to report feeling unsafe at school.
It is evident from both the research results and individual tragedies that special attention needs to be paid to cyber bullies. Online harassment may not only cause psychological and emotional damage to the victim, but may lead to a dangerous environment offline as well. Schools are the most common sites where online bullying may extend to physical contact, so much of the state legislation passed has ordered that school policy recognize cyber bullying as a form of harassment and punish cyber bullies if their actions should lead to victims skipping school or experiencing emotional damage. However, much more remains to be done. We cannot be satisfied with laws that place the burden solely on the backs of schoolsâ€"law enforcers need to be involved as well. We cannot simply accept laws that only take effect once cyber bullying affects victims offline. Whether on or offline, harassment is always a crime.
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