Safer Cyberspace Through Legal Intervention: A Comparative Review of Cyberbullying Legislation

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a problem that has increased significantly in incidence and severity over the recent past. The harmful consequences of cyberbullying have been well documented, including associations with severe psychological suffering, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. Cyberbullying is characterized by unique circumstances and challenges for those interested in tackling this burden using legal means. This critical review uses qualitative legal analysis. LexisNexis and PubMed searches were conducted. It examines laws and policies dealing with cyberbullying in both the United States and other countries starting with defining cyberbullying and then comparing the measures in which the issues surrounding cyberbullying have been addressed using various legal strategies. Finally, after analyzing existing legislative methods around the world, this article concludes with legal and policy recommendations based on these comparisons.

Cyberbulling: conceituações, dinâmicas, personagens e implicações à saúde

“…The other publications were considered as multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary. The most widely represented journals in this collection were Aggression and Violent Behavior (10), followed by Computers in Human Behavior (5). Thus, we addressed the collection from the specificities between the studies and not from their areas of origin.…”

“…Regarding the similarities, most studies indicate the repetition feature, the use of biting words, the imbalance of power and the intentional harm 5,9,22,29,31,42,48,52,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61] . Thomas et al 46 report that bullying and cyberbullying attacks are more alike than different and often co-occur.…”

“…For Yang and Grinshteyn 5 argue that closure of a conceptual meaning would not be beneficial since a delimited and concise definition could exclude a large number of potentially harmful behaviors. Besides, a definition that includes descriptive elements of the practice of cyberbullying specifying particular types of electronic devices over time may become obsolete after the launch of new technologies.…”

“…Cyberbullying is a new form of systematic violence that is a "social problem", and is a subject and concern of several disciplinary fields, besides being portrayed by some authors as a public health issue [1][2][3][4][5] . The different configurations of cyberbullying can be recognized as acts of psychological and systematic violence against children and adolescents perpetrated in the ambiances of digital sociability networks and can occur at any time and without a circumscribed and physically demarcated space.…”

Cyberbullying: A Primer

“…Cyberbullying offences are treated with other criminal laws at the state level. Governments should encourage social media such as Facebook and Twitter to set anti-bullying policies and report cyberbullying [7]. Some question whether it is possible to legislate moral behavior in cyberspace.…”