The Pros And Cons Of Cyberbullying

Bullying is defined as use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. This is portrayed in books movies and our everyday life. Bullying in the turn of the century has taken on a new light. This new way to bully is through the internet social media and email. Who bullies more boys or girl? More and more schools are trying to handle bullying traditionally and cyberbullying. We are finding that bullying is leading to more victims killing themselves and more bullies’ being held accountable. Many people still think that bullying is a rite of passage. That this will somehow make them tough. What we are learning is that because children never disconnect from the internet they

Most law enforcement agencies have cyber-crime units and often Internet stalking is treated with more seriousness than reports of physical stalking. Help and resources can be searched by state or area. The safety of schools is increasingly becoming a focus of state legislative action. There was an increase in cyberbullying enacted legislation between 2006–2010. The states do not agree. Initiatives and curriculum requirements also exist in the UK and Australia. Although the states courts have had rulings to decide liability in the cases of bullying and cyberbullying, the supreme court has not mad a definitive decision. In the Kowalski case, Kara Kowalski was disciplined for beginning a MySpace page that successfully invited others to make offensive comments and bully a student who was called a “slut” with “herpes.” When Kowalski sued the school district, the Fourth Circuit court supported the school district’s discipline of Kowalski, citing Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District (393 U.S. 503, 1969), a U.S. Supreme Court case on a student’s First-Amendment Rights. As established by Tinker, the school district successfully argued that school officials have a compelling interest in regulating speech that interferes with or disrupts the work and discipline of the school. The court in the Kowalski case determined that it was reasonably foreseeable that the speech would reach the school, so it was “satisfied that the nexus of Kowalski’s speech was sufficiently strong to justify the action taken by school officials in carrying out their role as the trustees of the student body’s well-being.” However, in direct contrast to the Kowalski case was the ruling in J.C. vs. Beverly Hills. In this case a 13-year-old girl was being cyberbullied. The district tried to intervene and discipline the bully, but the courts sided with the