No Charges in Cyberbullying Case
December 4, 2007 – 6:21 amMissouri prosecutors declined to press charges in the cyberbullying case in which a 13-year-old girl committed suicide. The girl hanged herself after receiving cruel messages through MySpace.com. St. Charles County prosecutor Jack Banas said he could not find any Missouri statutes allowing him to charge anyone in the case. Federal authorities examined the case and found that no federal crime had been committed. Undoubtedly lawmakers will look to creating new laws to cover cyberbullying.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, two towns in Missouri have already passed cyberbullying ordinances. Local ordinances are likely to be ineffective against an international medium like the Internet. State or federal regulations are likely to be more effective, but face some of the same difficult issues. Any cyberbully laws would have to be very carefully drafted to protect free speech. It is also important to consider whether we want to differentiate conduct on the Internet from other conduct. Is cyberbullying really that different from regular old-fashioned bullying? Do we want to outlaw all bullying? How do we define bullying or harrassment as opposed to say, just being a jerk? Lawmakers need to proceed very cautiously.
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