Although Google, Facebook and their rivals have enjoyed a relatively “safe harbor” from prosecution over user-generated content in the United States and Europe, they face a public that increasingly is more inclined to blame them for cyber-bullying and other online transgressions.

Such may have been the case when three Google executives were convicted in Milan, Italy on February 24 over a bullying video posted on the site — a verdict greeted with horror by online activists, who fear it could open the gates to such prosecutions and ultimately destroy the Internet itself.

Journalist Jeff Jarvis suggested on his influential BuzzMachine blog that the Italian court, which found Google executives guilty of violating the privacy of an autistic boy who was taunted in the video, was essentially requiring websites to review everything posted on them.

“The practical implication of that, of course, is that no one will let anyone put anything online because the risk is too great,” Jarvis wrote. “I wouldn’t let you post anything here. My ISP (Internet Service Provider) wouldn’t let me post anything on its services. And that kills the Internet.”

A seemingly stunned Chris Thompson, writing for Slate, said simply: “The mind reels at this medieval verdict.”

‘POLICEMEN OF THE INTERNET’

And Matt Sucherman, a Google vice president and general counsel, wrote in a blog post that the company was “deeply troubled” by the case, saying it “attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built.”

Legal experts have been more sanguine, saying the verdict in Milan will most likely end up an outlier — unable to stand the scrutiny even of the Italian appeals courts, never mind setting legal precedents elsewhere.

But in sentencing the executives to six-month suspended jail terms, the court may have seized on a growing desire to hold Internet companies responsible for the content posted by users.

“I actually think that this is probably not a watershed moment because the Google convictions violate European law and ultimately they will be overturned,” said John Morris, general counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology.

“Having said that, yes we are quite worried about the trend in other countries to suggest Internet service providers and Web sites should be the policemen of the Internet,” Morris said.

If the trend takes hold, it could put the companies on the defensive, forcing them to spend more time defending such cases or fending off calls to restrict content in some way.

China polices the web and demands cooperation from web companies, while the United States has stuck up for Internet freedom in the face of censorship by more repressive governments.

But social pressure often comes from the ground up, as Facebook recently found out in Australia.

In that case Facebook pages set up in tribute to two children murdered in February, 8-year-old Trinity Bates and 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher, were quickly covered with obscenities and pornography, prompting calls for the social network to be more accountable for its content.

“To have these things happen to Facebook pages set up for the sole purpose of helping these communities pay tribute to young lives lost in the most horrible ways adds to the grief already being experienced,” Queensland Premier Ann Bligh wrote to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter released to the Australian media.

THE ‘MYSPACE SUICIDE’

“I seek your advice about whether Facebook can do anything to prevent a recurrence of these types of sickening incidents,” Bligh said in the letter.

A Facebook spokeswoman responded that the popular social network, which has more than 400 million users worldwide, had rules to check content and that any reports of hate or threats would be quickly removed.

“Facebook is highly self-regulating and users can and do report content that they find questionable or offensive,” the spokeswoman, Debbie Frost, said.

Calls for prosecution of cyber-bullying first reached a peak with the case of a suburban mother accused of driving a love-lorn 13-year-old girl, Megan Meier, to suicide in 2006 by tormenting her with a fake MySpace persona.

Lori Drew, the mother of a girl with whom Meir had quarreled, was found guilty of misdemeanor federal charges in a case dubbed the “MySpace Suicide” in the U.S. media, but a judge later dismissed her conviction on the grounds that the prosecution was selective the law unconstitutionally vague.

But Meier’s death and a series of child exploitation cases linked to News Corp’s MySpace brought pressure on the site to increase its security measures and may have cost it in its apparently losing rivalry with Facebook for social network dominance.

Such issues point to the business risks for the likes of Google and Facebook as they seek to reconcile demands for accountability with the impossibility of monitoring everything posted on their sites.

“We are a society that expects companies and people of authority to take responsibility, not only for their own actions but for the actions of those beneath them,” said Karen North, director of the Annenberg Program on Online Communities at the University of Southern California.

“The difficulty is, we’ve created an Internet culture where people are invited to put up content, but the responsibility falls in both directions,” North said. “(On the Internet) we all share the responsibility to monitor the content that we find and for our societal standards to be maintained.”

Bullying is no longer about the strong picking on the weak in the schoolyard. The physical assault has been replaced by a 24 hour per day, seven days a week online bashing. Savvy students are using Instant Messaging, e-mails, chat rooms and websites they create to humiliate a peer. No longer can parents count on seeing the tell-tale physical signs of bullying—a black eye, bloody lip, torn clothes. But the damage done by cyber bullies is no less real, and can be infinitely more painful.

* Cyber Bullying Statistics 42% of kids have been bullied while online. 1 in 4 have had it happen more than once.
* 35% of kids have been threatened online. Nearly 1 in 5 have had it happen more than once.
* 21% of kids have received mean or threatening e-mail or other messages.
* 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than 4 out of 10 say it has happened more than once.
* 53% of kids admit having said something mean or hurtful to another person online. More than 1 in 3 have done it more than once.
* 58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online.

Based on 2004 i-SAFE survey of 1,500 students grades 4-8

* Cyber Bullying Tips Tell a trusted adult about the bullying, and keep telling until the adult takes action.
* Don’t open or read messages by cyber bullies.
* Tell your school if it is school related. Schools have a bullying solution in place.
* Don’t erase the messages—they may be needed to take action.
* Protect yourself—never agree to meet with the person or with anyone you meet online.
* If bullied through chat or instant messaging, the “bully” can often be blocked.
* If you are threatened with harm, inform the local police.

*Taken from an i-SAFE America survey of students nationwide.

Q: Is cyber bullying legal? Are there any laws to tackle such cases?
A: Cyber bullying is illegal. Bullies can be convicted under the Computer Crimes Act, the Penal Code or the Juvenile Act, depending on the nature or severity of the case.
Q: Whose responsibility is it to ensure this problem does not persist?
A: It is the responsibility of parents, schools and youngsters to take proactive action to prevent or minimise such activities in the society.
Parents should be more aware of and monitor their children’s activities on the Internet.
They should even consider installing software in their home PCs to monitor their child’s online activities. Parents should also limit the time spent by their children on the computer. Schools can integrate curriculum-based Net-bullying programmes into classrooms and educate teachers, students and parents about the seriousness of cyber bullying. Schools may consider updating the school or board’s computer Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to specifically prohibit using the Internet for bullying
Here are a couple of cyber laws you may have already broken:
1. Computer Crimes Act 1997
Section Three: Unauthorised access to computer materials. If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM50,000 or a prison term of not more than five years.
Section Four: Unauthorised access to computer materials with the intent to commit or facilitate an offence. If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM150,000 or a prison term of not more than 10 years.
Section Five: Unauthorised modification to contents. If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM100,000 or a prison term of not more than seven years.
2. Communication and Multimedia Act
Section 223: Improper use of network facilities or network services
Note: Under this section, any comment, request, suggestion or any other communication which sounds obscene, indecent, is false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person commits an offence.
If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM50,000 or a prison term of not more than one year.
How to deal with online harassment
NEITHER the police nor MyCert (Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team), which deals with computer security and methods of prevention, has received any reports of cyber bullying.
According to ASP Mahfuz Abd Majid of the police’s Technology Crime Investigation Unit, this could be due to the problem being settled privately by the parties involved or the victims may feel that there is no significant loss (usually in monetary terms) to warrant the hassle of lodging a report.

Cyberstalking
Cybersylkaing is when someone send continuous messages through Internet or phone. These messages are somehow a threat and after a while they may turn to a physical threat by moving offline.

Flaming
Flaming involves by using electronic ways, such as chatrooms, yahoo messenger, which could be in harsh a cruel manner.

Masquerading
Masquerading is when someone opens an account with a false identification and harasses another by pretending to be someone else, or even could be by stealing the log-in information then going public with those informations.

What I would like to discuss today is some tips that could be done to prevent all this is a positive way, Firstly,parents could ask their child or teen to set their computer in a public place in the house so they could monitor, who they’re chatting with and what are they chatting about, however , this should be done in a mature way so that their teen would’nt feel disrespected or get the feeling that their parents don’t trust them.

Secondly, Parents, and school should make their teen’s and student aware of what is cyberbully? Why do they bully? How should they defend themselves when attacked by a cyberbullier?
Thirdly, Most of the times Cyberbully is somehow sexual, this could be really embarrassing for the teen , they will not come and talk about this with their parents, they usually go to their friends, whom could be a friend of the bullier it self, so I think it’s a really sensitive matter, which shouBy now we know what cyberbully is all about.Its sad to know that everyday somewhere your child is being attacked by cyberbulliers. The staticts on cyberbullying is on the rise, the whole idea of this matter is really cruel.The name many people gace to a cyberbullier is ” a bully without a face”.

What I would like to discuss today is some tips that could be done to prevent all this is a positive way, Firstly,parents could ask their child or teen to set their computer in a public place in the house so they could monitor, who they’re chatting with and what are they chatting about, however , this should be done in a mature way so that their teen would’nt feel disrespected or get the feeling that their parents don’t trust them.
Secondly, Parents, and school should make their teen’s and student aware of what is cyberbully? Why do they bully? How should they defend themselves when attacked by a cyberbullier?
Thirdly, Most of the times Cyberbully is somehow sexual, this could be really embarrassing for the teen , they will not come and talk about this with their parents, they usually go to their friends, whom could be a friend of the bullier it self, so I think it’s a really sensitive matter, which should be handled wisely.
What should be done? How should it be done?

Bullying has moved with the times. In the cyber world, bullies can now penetrate their victims’ homes even in the dead of the night. ANITA ANANDARAJAH reports

IN New York recently, some eighth-grade girls decided to give Amanda Marcuson, the new girl in school, a welcome she’d never forget. First, they stole her pencil case filled with makeup.

Soon after Amanda reported them, instant messages started popping up on her computer screen back home. They called her a tattle-tale and a liar.

When she typed back “You stole my stuff!”, the response was “you’re a stuck-up bitch”. Subsequent replies grew increasingly ugly.

Two weeks ago, a 15-year-old Singapore boy, hacked into his enemy’s e-mail account, changed the password to deny him access, and then sent out bogus messages from the account designed to get the latter into trouble.

A quick check with several secondary school students in the Klang Valley revealed that cyber bullying is common, and has in fact been around for at least five years.

ASP Mahfuz Abd Majid from the police Technology Crime Investigation Unit confirmed this, saying that the same bullying cases he saw 20 years ago are now taking place online.

A victim of vile, vicious online threats

But what if messages like “raping her is no fun – you’ll end up having a sore dick. Better yet, hire some thugs to take care of her until she dies of sexual exhaustion” become a daily occurrence?

That statement was allegedly posted in the online community forum of a co-ed secondary school in a wealthy suburb in Kuala Lumpur.

The system administrator was a 14-year-old female who did nothing to censor or bar the above comment and tens of others that terrorised a third former for three months. Worse, she partook in the vulgar insults along with the others.

It all began with an online forum, started with the intention of running down one of the prefects in school who presumably made the lives of a few unruly students miserable. A poll ensued. It was titled “Who do you hate?”

In the same online community, there was a separate forum insulting teachers.

When the prefect was spied reading some of the comments about the teachers, her would-be tormentors spread the word that she had printed out the comments to be distributed to the school principal. It never happened, of course.

From then on, the seriousness of the threats escalated. “Let’s slice her boobs and rub chilli on them roast her pubic hair and make her eat them,” went one vicious comment.

When asked how she felt reading these messages, the prefect put on a brave face and said that they didn’t bother her.

After a little prodding, she admitted that she found them irritating, especially when one of the perpetrators yelled “Bitch!” every time he walked past her class.

“I just want to put this behind me as soon as possible,” she said.

What is disturbing is most of the tormentors were unknown to the victim. But she knows who they are now, thanks to some sleuthing work by her parents.

She acknowledges that she may have stepped on a few toes while carrying out her duties as a prefect but she was taken aback by the vicious reactions.

She is lucky that her parents are supportive – and IT -savvy. Her mother painstakingly printed out every message posted on the website and tracked down the students involved while her father approached the school authorities and, at his insistence, called for a meeting with the parents of the bullies.

“What was shocking was that all of them (about a dozen in all) were from well-to-do families. They are also exemplary students in school,” said the girl’s father.

“But I noticed that their fathers were absent most of the time and they were left alone a lot,” added the girl’s mother.Her parents even spoke to some of the students, demanding to know why they were picking on their daughter.

When her father asked one of the boys why he did it, this was the horrific reply: “It’s a free world.”

Her parents have come to an agreement with the bullies’ parents and will not pursue the matter anymore.

“As parents, we are aware that a police report will leave a black mark on their records. What if one day our children were to commit the same mistake? How would we react? That’s why I hesitated to lodge a police report,” said the father.

An online bully’s confession

Mark readily admitted that he picked on “weaker” people, very much like how a school bully would.

On the outside, he is quiet, studious and well-mannered. But once online, he sizes up other people who he deems less IT-savvy than he is.

“I pick random people online. When we’re online, it is possible to gain certain information. This can be done by downloading certain tracking software from illegal websites. All one has to do is type in the IP address into the software and you can pinpoint their location – right down to a specific township even.

“Many people think they’re safe and anonymous online,” he said.

Mark pointed out that if the victim has limited IT knowledge, he would begin by making empty threats – like saying that he would send e-mail from his inbox to everyone.

“Those who know better will call my bluff,” he said.

A victim may unwittingly release vital information. Mark once asked one of his victims what type of connection and speed he was hooked up to. The answer was “Streamyx”.

“I knew right away that he was in Malaysia as Streamyx is a broadband service provided by TM Net, one of our local service providers,” he explained.

Mark’s advice: “You can protect yourself. Avoid the verbal abuse by blocking them or by switching to another chat room. Or simply ignore the comments.”

Do not think that because you are a minor, you are above the law.

“Whether or not the perpetrator is a juvenile, he can be charged like any other criminal,” said Mahfuz, who advised victims to lodge a police report if they wanted action to be taken.

Cyber bullies can be easily traced

Q: What does cyber bullying involve? What methods are used?

A: There are several ways that young people bully others online. They send e-mail containing insults or threats directly to a person. They may also spread hateful comments about a person through e -mail, instant messaging or postings on websites and online diaries. Young people steal passwords and send out threatening e-mail or instant messages using an assumed identity. Technically-savvy children may build whole websites, often with password protection, to target specific students or teachers.

These methods are simple as all one needs to know is how to log into the Internet, send/receive e-mail, chat and download files.

Q: Is there any way to trace the bully?

A: Yes, any kind of bullying or illegal activity done via the Net is traceable. This is done by analysing system logs, full headers and other information or evidence that can be extracted from a machine used to carry out the bullying activities.

Q: Is cyber bullying legal? Are there any laws to tackle such cases?

A: Cyber bullying is illegal. Bullies can be convicted under the Computer Crimes Act, the Penal Code or the Juvenile Act, depending on the nature or severity of the case.

Q: Whose responsibility is it to ensure this problem does not persist?

A: It is the responsibility of parents, schools and youngsters to take proactive action to prevent or minimise such activities in the society.

Parents should be more aware of and monitor their children’s activities on the Internet. They should even consider installing software in their home PCs to monitor their child’s online activities. Parents should also limit the time spent by their children on the computer. Schools can integrate curriculum-based Net-bullying programmes into classrooms and educate teachers, students and parents about the seriousness of cyber bullying. Schools may consider updating the school or board’s computer Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to specifically prohibit using the Internet for bullying.

Answers provided by MyCert

The wrath of law

YOU can get into serious trouble if bullying people online is your thing. Here are a couple of cyber laws you may have already broken:

1. Computer Crimes Act 1997

Section Three: Unauthorised access to computer materials. If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM50,000 or a prison term of not more than five years.

Section Four: Unauthorised access to computer materials with the intent to commit or facilitate an offence. If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM150,000 or a prison term of not more than 10 years.

Section Five: Unauthorised modification to contents. If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM100,000 or a prison term of not more than seven years.

2. Communication and Multimedia Act

Section 223: Improper use of network facilities or network services

Note: Under this section, any comment, request, suggestion or any other communication which sounds obscene, indecent, is false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person commits an offence.

If convicted, the offender is liable to a fine of not more than RM50,000 or a prison term of not more than one year.

How to deal with online harassment

NEITHER the police nor MyCert (Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team), which deals with computer security and methods of prevention, has received any reports of cyber bullying.

According to ASP Mahfuz Abd Majid of the police’s Technology Crime Investigation Unit, this could be due to the problem being settled privately by the parties involved or the victims may feel that there is no significant loss (usually in monetary terms) to warrant the hassle of lodging a report.

Less than 10 per cent of breaches in Internet security made to MyCert are lodged with the police.

If you’ve been flamed, spammed or harassed in an online community, the experience can be terrifying or plain annoying. Here’s what you can do:

1. Do not reply to spam (junk e-mail). It will confirm your e-mail address and lead more spam into your inbox.

2. Ignore the hate mails (being ‘flamed’) and spam as much as you can. Sometimes, all the perpetrators want is for you to respond.

3. However, once these messages start to distress you, show it to a parent. “If you think your life could be in danger, lodge a report at the nearest police station. They will then conduct an investigation,” said Mahfuz.

There was always bullying in school. There is a certain bare knuckles quality to emotional cruelty in high school. In the age of the internet, such activities take on a frightening twist. On line, a cyber bullying victim doesn’t know who is behind his or her torment. At a keyboard, you can be anyone you want. You can be few or many.

A young girl is dead in Massachusetts. Phoebe Prince, a 15 year old who had recently immigrated to Massachusetts from Ireland, committed suicide last week. Even in death, after saddened classmates posted a Facebook page in her memory, her memorial page was reportedly defaced with taunting comments. Fox News reports as follows.

“Prince died on Jan. 14 after a rough freshman year. Friends and school officials told MyFoxBoston.com that Prince had been picked on and taunted since moving to Massachusetts last fall.

South Hadley High Principal Daniel Smith sent out a letter to parents of students at the high school. In the letter, he called Prince “smart, charming, and as is the case with many teenagers, complicated . . . We will never know the specific reasons why she chose to take her life,” Boston.com reported.

School bullies taunted Phoebe Prince through text messages, the computer and on Facebook and other social networking sites, Smith told the Boston Herald.”

My heart goes out to Phoebe Prince and her family. Moving to a new community is traumatic for a child. Even a kid who was popular at home can feel that all the gains they made socially were lost in transit. With no support network built up, social rejection can hurt a great deal. The time after a child’s family moves is indeed a risky time.

I remember such challenges very well. My family moved at a critical time when I was emerging from social awkwardness. Even though I was told I had a great opportunity, it only made me feel worse. I spun into a depression that took years to recover from. This was in the age before cyberspace. Today, anyone who wants to be a bully can be “the snot heard round the world”.

Schools need to catch up with the challenges of cyber space. Children who attend a school should be required to declare any social networking sites or blogs they may have. Free speech should be clearly articulated to protect political speech and not personal attacks and slander. Schools need to cooperate with criminal prosecutions of those who electronically harass fellow students. Years ago, there was obscene phone calls and abuse of the mail. Today, texting and regular internet open new opportunities. Parents and administrators need to make it clear that character and social behavior are as important as anything that is taught in school.

Phoebe Prince should be honoured in death with a recognition of the ways technology has changed the social landscape in schools. A kid who wants to be a political commentator deserves the same protections of free speech enjoyed by any adult. Those who want to slander, torment and harass deserve no protection at all. If we refuse to recognise and act on the distinction between the two, we are creating a tormented and heartless generation. How many more children must suffer before we wake up?

Avery Doninger has put off going to college so she can volunteer with AmeriCorps — at least when she’s not in court.

Doninger, 18, graduated from Lewis Mills High School in Burlington, Conn., last June, but she has not left it behind. She is at the center of a landmark free-speech case, stemming from her days at the school, that appears headed for the Supreme Court.

Doninger was a star student at Mills, and in 2007 she wanted to run for senior class secretary, a position that included the honor of speaking at her graduation ceremony.

But Karissa Niehoff, the school’s principal, rejected Doninger’s candidacy over a personal blog entry Doninger posted from her home computer. In the posting, Doninger reported — inaccurately, it turned out — that a school event she had helped organize had been canceled. She blamed “douchebags in central office” for the supposed cancellation and reported that a flood of complaints had “pissed off” the school district’s superintendent.

Doninger ran as a write-in candidate and won, only to be barred from taking office. That led her mother to sue the school district on her behalf. The Doningers lost this month in U.S. District Court; their attorney promised to appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court.

To Doninger, the case hinges on her First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

“I think that it’s really important for students to stand up for their rights, because if we don’t maintain democracy on the lowest levels, we’ll never be able to maintain them on the highest levels,” she said.

But to school officials, Doninger is a cyberbully whose writings threatened to disrupt operations at the school.

“When kids are in a position of privilege, there are certain standards of behavior we expect them to uphold,” Niehoff said. “Our position stands for respect. We’re just hoping kids appreciate the seriousness of any communication over the Internet.”

Suicide sparks a national debate
Doninger’s case, which runs contrary to the student-as-victim storyline typical of cyberbullying cases, illustrates the difficulty legislators and authorities are encountering as they try to rein in what experts say is an increasingly common and virulent form of harassment.

Connecticut does not have a law against cyberbullying, defined by the National Crime Prevention Council as the use “the Internet, cell phones, or other devices … to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.” The state has an anti-bullying statute on the books, but it says nothing about the Internet and electronic communications, and it addresses only situations in which students are the victims.
But states’ efforts to bring some clarity to the realm of new communications technologies like blogs, instant messages and e-mail have done little to resolve when threatening or unruly behavior trumps freedom of speech, said Jeffrey Shaman, a First Amendment scholar at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago.

You know how shutting down the “erotic services” section on Craigslist won’t stop sex workers, or eliminate their higher probability of becoming crime victims by the marginalized nature of the trade? Similarly, outlawing meanness on the Internet won’t prevent hectors from preying on the weak on the Internet or turn jerks into saints in any aspect of their lives.

Attention-grabbing headlines, spotlight-hungry politicians and Internet safety crusaders would have us believe that technology is killing our children by the school bus-load. H.R. 1966 is also known as the “Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act,” named for the 13-year-old girl who suicided after she suffered extended
The people behind another proposed law, the “School And Family Education about the Internet (SAFE Internet) Act,” recruited as spokesperson the mother of a teenage girl who suffered public humiliation after her nude picture was “sexted” to hundreds of people. That girl also killed herself.

Many of the news stories about these tragic events flagrantly disregard the World Health Organization’s media guidelines for reporting suicide thoroughly and without drama, so as not to incite media contagion — the proven event in which news coverage inspires copycat suicides, especially among teenagers.

Many of the stories either failed to mention, or otherwise buried the facts that Megan Meier had suicidal ideations before her MySpace ordeal or that the “sexting” victim had just attended the funeral of a friend who had recently killed herself, which increases suicide risk significantly.

When such stories are covered or laws are proposed, there is often little or no mention that the teenage suicide rate in the United States is wretchedly high, and was even before the pervasiveness of technology.

Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying doesn’t stop at the front door. It comes into our homes in e-mail messages, chat rooms, Web pages and phone text messages. It takes many forms, including:

* Sending direct messages that are mean, vulgar or threatening
* Posting a person’s private or sensitive information online
* Impersonating the victim online to make them look bad
* Posting humiliating or degrading photos of the victim online
* Attacking the victim with spam or thousands of text messages
* Stealing passwords or breaking into the victim’s online account

Megan Meier Cyberbullying Tragedy

Cyberbullying is particularly ugly when it involves an adult bullying a child. Take the case of Megan Meier. The 13-year-old Missouri girl was driven to suicide by an online hoax.

Megan’s adult neighbor, Lori Drew, helped impersonate a teen age boy on the social networking site MySpace. The fake boy drew Megan into an online relationship, which ended with a fight and the boy telling Megan the world would be better off without her. A short time later, Megan hung herself.
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Public outrage called for the criminal prosecution of Drew for her involvement in Megan’s death. At the time, no Missouri criminal law applied. So Drew was prosecuted under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a computer theft law, for criminally accessing a computer.

On August 31, a federal judge ruled the law was unconstitutional and dismissed the charges. The law was too broadly written. It put anyone who violated a Web site’s service agreement at risk of being charged with a crime.
Making Cyberbullying Criminal

Following Megan’s death, Missouri passed a law that made it a felony for an adult to harass a child through electronic communication. A person convicted under the law faces up to four years in prison.

Last month, Elizabeth Thrasher was the first person to be charged under the new law. Thrasher’s accused of posting a 17-year-old’s photo and personal information in a Craigslist online ad that suggested the teen was seeking a sexual encounter.
How to Deal with Cyberbullying

The US Dept. of Health and Human Services offers these tips for dealing with a cyberbully:

* Support your child. Listen and empathize with your child
* Don’t respond to the bully. Encourage your child not to respond or retaliate
* Save it. Don’t erase the messages and images. You might need them for evidence
* Report it. Report bad language or other violations of the “Terms and Conditions” of e-mail services and Web sites to the service providers
* Identify the cyberbully. Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to track down the cyberbully. If you think the harassment might be criminal, ask the police to help
* Block it. You may be able to block the cyberbully’s e-mail or cell phone harassment by contacting your service provider
* Contact your school. The school must intervene if the harassment comes through the district’s Internet system. Administrators will want to know about the situation even if it occurs outside of the school
* Consider telling the bully’s parents. Contact the bully’s parents if you think they might help. Communicate in writing and show them proof of the cyberbullying
* Consider contacting an attorney. In serious cases, victims may be able to sue the cyberbully or the bully’s parents for the infliction of emotional distress or other personal injuries
* Contact the police. If you aren’t sure whether the cyberbullying is a crime in your situation, call your local police and they can advise you. Call the police if it involves:
* Threats of violence
* Extortion
* Obscene or repeated harassing phone calls or text messages
* Stalking or hate crimes
* Child pornography

From name calling to death threats, cyberbullying is very upsetting for children and parents. Try to keep your emotions in check so you can carefully determine the best way to help your child.
Questions for Your Attorney

* Could a teenager be charged as an adult under an anti-harassment law, such as Missouri’s?
* Which is more effective – approaching the parents of a harassing child, or having an attorney write a letter to the parents?
* Is it an offense for a child or student who receives harassing e-mail messages or postings to respond in kind, as in if someone’s shoved, there are some who will shove back?