Cyberbullying comprises of the utilization of information and online resources such as emails, telephone messages, defamation internet blogs, and websites to promote deliberate behaviors harmful to individuals or groups of people. The issue of Cyberbullying in the modern world is critical hence, the need for new changes in the Cyberbullying laws to reflect the problems caused by Cyberbullying. Since the inception of the internet, governments passed statutes to address online criminal activities such as Cyberbullying, spamming, cyber-stalking, trespassing, stealing wireless services, and illegal access to information.Most of the internet violations occur through social websites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram among others. This paper shows support for the need to establish new laws to curb the Cyberbullying menace and the social, economic, and political implications.
Constituents of Cyberbullying
Cybercrimes such as Cyberbullying occur because of various factors, for example, unemployment, income differences, economic structure, population, and the growing rate of urbanization. There are four essential components of Cyberbullying. The components of Cyberbullying entail the existence of an aggressive bully, imbalance between the bully and the victim, recurrent attacks by the bully, and inability of the victims to defend them. The ability of the bully to harm gives him or her sense of superiority compared to the victims. The bullies achieve Cyberbullying in various ways such as harassment, cyber-stalking, exclusion, denigration, trickery, impersonation, outing, and flaming. Harassment involves sending of harmful messages to the target’s email or via text messages. Cyberstalking requires the use of cyber threats that can lead to physical harm to the target. Exclusion involves removal of certain people from in-groups and negatively disregards their contributions. Denigration means destroying the reputation of individuals publicly. Outing refers to leaking of someone’s private information to others. Impersonation involves the bully posing to be another person to access and manage organizational or group information. Flaming includes arguments between two or more persons often associated with insults and threats.
The Current Cyberbullying Laws
Various laws are governing Cyberbullying and other online crimes, but the problem is the enforcements of these laws. For example, the majority of the perpetrators of these online crimes get away with these crimes showing a defect in the law enforcement bodies. Civil law protects the victims of Cyberbullying through the application of protection orders and seeking redress in case of defamation. According to the Cyber-Safety Act publishes on the CanLII website, the judges create the protection orders in court to aid in safeguarding the rights of individuals (Canlii.org n.p.). A protection order guards the safety of a particular person named in the protection order. The protection order contains rules of no contact, restricted communication, and other conditions. The no contact and limited contact apply to the internet. Civil law also safeguards individuals from defamation whereby the victim should sue the offender to the Supreme Court (Theglobeandmail.com n.p.). The right to use the defamation criminal is valid for two years. On the other hand, Criminal law safeguards individuals from fear for safety and proscribed conduct. However, the current Cyberbullying laws are not efficient due to various reasons, for instance, the current system faces the problem of slow operations.
The need to modify the Cyberbullying laws
Increased application of the internet by individuals globally, therefore, makes individuals and organizations more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and other internet violations such as leaking of private personal information, the release of embarrassing information that compromises the privacy of people and companies, and posting of harmful content on the internet platform. The process of enforcing cyber-crimes is difficult since implementing the new law is a more cumbersome task compared to the traditional law implementation. Firstly, the modern Cyberbullying laws should redefine the freedom of expression to limit the posting of wrong information (Bishop, 315). Besides, the creation of more rationalized laws would eradicate the confusion brought about by misinterpretation.
Moreover, the police should issue consequences that are more proportional to the offenders such as fines and society orders. Nevertheless, the system should support thefaster removal of Cyberbullying materials from the internet. The move to adopt Cyberbullying education will solve the problem of lack of knowledge and relevant training by the law enforcement personnel, for example, the police officers. The law enforcement bodies should familiarize with the modern technology to capture offenders easily. According to the CTV news website, Sonja argues that the government should also play a role in fighting Cyberbullying and other cyber-crimes (Puzic 1). The government should support organizations to develop software with the capacity to detect and stop malicious activities. The government should also impose consequences for the offenders of Cyberbullying and other cyber crimes.
Implications of Cyberbullying and Fragile Cyberbullying Laws
Bullying activities such as Cyberbullying have adverse effects on individuals, organizations and the society. The current Cyberbullying laws do not address all the implications of Cyberbullying. Its effects create the need for modification of the existing system. Besides, Cyber bullying is a vigorous and relative spectacle subjected to the social, economic, and political alterations in the modern society. Accordingly, cyber bullying influences the welfare of individuals, family and peer interactions in a variety of ways.
Social Implications
Cyberbullying causes the rise of unethical behaviors in the society. The problem of Cyberbullying is not because of its existence for quite a long time. Firstly, Cyberbullying compromises noble traits and values such as honesty, responsibility, respect, charity, among other values contributing to the adoption of antisocial behaviors and engagement in abuse. Secondly, Cyberbullying causes social isolation among victims and compromises their safety (Benzmiller, 950). Also, the victims experience emotional and physical damage attributed to diminished self-esteem and anxiety. The social effects brought about by Cyberbullying also pave theway for concentration and academic problems. Cyberbullying also causes mental complications to the victims attributed to depression and stress-associated impediments. Bullying causes poor performance in one’s place of occupation and adverse working conditions. The victims of Cyberbullying experience trauma, stress, and suicidal thoughts among other emotional problems that haunt them in the future.
Economic Implications
The Cyberbullying catastrophe has a variety of economic consequences, in that cyber bullies end up hacking into computer systems, stealing financial records, and the data of the company’s customers. Individuals and enterprises encounter various difficulties in dealing with the cyber bullies. Firstly, the companies face the burden of identifying the risks posed them by the bullies. Besides, the organizations also face the liability of adopting new and efficient procedures that enable them to identify the bullies. Nevertheless, the companies have to purchase software necessaryto detect malware.Also, organizations with complex systems face the difficulty of installing new security personnel to help them deal with the cyber-attacks efficiently. Moreover, these systems undergo testing before use. Hence, the organizations require monetary resources to achieve system testing. The process of maintenance also increases the costs accrued by organizations.
Political Implications
Cyberbullying has various effects in the political field. It influences the political system in that it controls the norms, rules, and the political structure. Cyber bullies often target politicians and invades their websites posting damaging information that jeopardizes their political career. Some of the bullies receive payment from political opponents to defame their counterparts as a move to gain more popularity. Therefore, Cyberbullying promotes vices such as defamation hence distorting the political field through the creation of unfair competition in the race for political posts. Also, it jeopardizes the judicial system. Cyber bullies deprive people of various freedoms and rights (Benzmiller, 932). Cyberbullying compromises the rights of individuals to be free from mental, physical, or social violence. Since, Cyberbullying is a common problem, human rights agreements support that individuals have the obligation to observe each other’s rights.
Conclusion
Cyberbullying is a common problem facing the world. It has various implications categorized into social, economic, and political. It occurs in a variety of ways such as impersonation, harassment, denigration among others. Increased availability and use of the internet increase the chances of occurrence of cybercrimes. The current Cyberbullying laws need modification to deal with the resulting weaknesses. Organizations and individuals should adopt safer systems that detect and prevent cyber-attacks.The current Cyberbullying laws are not efficient enough hence changes are necessary to promote safer and more reliable systems. The government is also essential in the implementation of certain Cyber bullying laws. Organizations should be at the forefront in the fight against cybercrimes to promote a safe social, economic, and political environment.
Works Cited
Benzmiller, Heather. "The Cyber-Samaritans: Exploring Criminal Liability For The "Innocent" Bystanders Of Cyberbullying." Northwestern University Law Review 107.2 (2013): 927-962. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
Bishop, Jonathan. "The Art Of Trolling Law Enforcement: A Review And Model For Implementing ‘Flame Trolling' Legislation Enacted In Great Britain (1981–2012)." International Review Of Law, Computers & Technology 27.3 (2013): 301-318. Business Source Complete. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
Canlii.org, "CanLII - Cyber-Safety Act, SNS 2013, C 2." N.p., 2016. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
Theglobeandmail.com, "Judge strikes down cyberbullying law inspired by Rehtaeh Parsons’ article 27718662 - The Globe And Mail." N.p., 2016. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.
Puzic, Sonja. "Anti-Cyberbullying Law, Bill C-13, Now In Effect."CTV News (2015): A single page. Print.
