Cyberbullies Should Be Illegal

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It has been argued by those who oppose legal consequences for online behavior that cyberbullies should not hold blame for the reaction of their target. In The New York Times article “Bullying, Suicide, Punishment,” Professor of Law and cybercrime specialist, Orin S. Kerr, expresses his concern that offenders need to be prosecuted for the crime they committed and not for how their victim responded, releasing the cyberbully of any ownership of what occurs after the offense. In this line of thinking, should the courts also be expected to stop charging robbers with first-degree murder after they “accidentally” murder their victim while committing their initial felony? No, because whether it they intended to cause the victim to commit suicide or not, the act was a result of their crime, for which they should be held accountable and punished. Cyberbullies should be held accountable for the outcome of a victim after or while bullying and should be punished relatively to that. …show more content…

Some parents lack the time and computer skills to be able monitor their children’s online activity. Often, afraid of revenge or insufficient action, the victims do not report the abuse to authorities, leaving the parents and school administration unable to manage the violations effectively. However, as pointed out by Wendy J. Murphy in the article “Federal Law Requires Schools to Protect Children from Cyberbullying,” in the cases that the schools are made aware of the viscous attacks of cyberbullies, because they are not required to intervene in events that happen off-campus, they are hesitant to get involved. Referring back to Tyler Clementi’s case, the school knew about the bullying by his roommate, but failed to take action, potentially missing an opportunity to get the law involved and prevent Tyler’s

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