Should cyberbullying be a criminal offense?

Pro has some good points, but con has some also.

Although I think that cyberbullying is a bad thing, I don't know if it should really be a criminal offence. I guess it would depend on how far somebody goes with it, like threatening someones life...is probably a not so good thing. I am aware however that more recently cyberbullying on sites like Facebook has gotten much worse, but that sort of thing is going to happen regardless unless we stop using the internet altogether.

So all in all, I do not think that cyberbullying should be labelled a criminal offence in general, but just things that would regularily be illegal (threatening lives, stealing, etc.)

Well, I think it honestly depends on the severity. If it has driven the victim so far that they want to kill themself then I say yes, the cyberbullyer should be charged with something. But I don't think flaming someone on the Internet with insults should really be considered a criminal offense.

Cyberbullying shouldnt be treated as such.

You can hide on the internet, takes a click of the x button, or a mute button.

You don't really have that in real life. So you can leave if you want online, it's just not possible offline sometimes.

It's a complicated subject. In some areas of the US, bullying is already considered a crime in the legal system. Cyberbullying could be a lot more difficult to combat.

Only in the Obama administration. Good thing about a computer is you have all the tools to block and ignore ignorant people you can't really do that in person unless you got a gun. So no it should not be a criminal offense.

It depends. If the offense is so severe, that the victim wants to choose suicide, then it should definitely be considered as a criminal offense! But in most cases, the victim can usually just block the bully or something like that, thank god. Unfortunately in real life, they aren't as lucky.

It is a offense its called Harassment, at least if you filed a complaint thats what the police would file it as in my state

Nope, it shouldn't be a criminal offense. Perhaps having you not being allowed on the internet for like a month would be more fitting. But if it was a criminal offense, places like 4chan wouldn't exist.

I don't even see how something like that could be turned into a crime.

No. It's up to the sites that the bullying is on to deal with it. If the site isn't handling it in the way you want just go to another.

If it leads to someone killing a man then something would have to be done.Words can be just as hurtfull as fists.

oh yes cyberbullying should be a criminal offense i mean it happens to everyone and then they wind up committing suicide

brandonrock : There's a thing called a block button and not another form of entertainment seriously considering how you have another life outside the internet.

ok i see now thats a good point and another great one is i never look at my email so thats great too thanks

septembern : I think that cyber bullying has and is continuing to become a major problem amongst our youth. I feel it isn’t necessarily like it was when we were kids and the best way to deal with a bully in school or in the neighborhood was to confront them and more often than not once confronted the bully often would turn the other cheek.
The biggest difference obviously is with cyber bullying it gives those protagonists a potential smoke screen to hide under because they can use online aliases and not reveal themselves as who they really are. It is an act of deliberation which I think on that basis should be punishable but only for the severe cases/most serious cases. Like the bullying causing suicides or severe medical trauma etc.

In cases like that there needs to and should be a standard of accountability for those wrong in situations like that. It is part of the negativity that I have heard over the years happening on social networking websites that has turned me off to the idea of venturing into social networking.


I am a grown man and obviously don’t have to worry about being bullied but, I feel that if cyber bullying can’t be adequately controlled on social networking websites then it is an unnecessary risk to be on those sites no matter how good intentioned you may be.

There has to be a higher standard...


At least that’s how I feel about it. I am an Uncle to six children ranging in age from 10 to 19 and I worry about all of them and what they may be doing online because the sad reality is you cannot no matter how much you may try watch kids 24/7.

As an Uncle who looks at these kids as if they were my own it bothers me greatly…

People get bullied online because they want to or because the site does not do a good job modding their users. If you don't want to be bullied you can do many things:

1) Turn off the computer
2) Go to another site
3) Stay on the site and dont participate
4) Sink to their level and spend many hours bashing one another for entertainment
5) Report them

Sure one option is suicide, but its not the bullies fault for killing yourself. You can ignore online bullying easily but not so much in real life. How do you think Justin Beiber feels? He probably gets bullied 24/7 all over the web.

Most celebrities will just ignore it, if they took in the millions of insults they would probably all be dead by now too.

The world has too many pricks, no one can save you from them all so your just going to have to take a stand for yourself and deal with it how you choose. Giving someone a criminal offense won't do anything but make government richer.

I don't know, this is a tough subject for me i have been bullied by people on the internet and Ive had a friend commit suicide because of the texts and emails he would receive. I miss him...

This is not trying to be rude to the person above me, but if you take anything on the internet seriously, you got problems. People act completely different on the internet than they do in real life.

Cyberbullying is not a huge deal. I hear people crying about how someone said something mean on Facebook and drove them to suicide. Suicide? Over a wallpost? Over 100 wallposts?

Maybe kids these days should develop a thicker skin. We're so busy cuddling, coddling, and making everyone feel good about themselves that no one can take any criticism or negative information. At work, a 20 year old girl was challenged because she failed to do a project correctly. She cried for 15 minutes in the bathroom because the boss said, "You did this wrong. It's not good."

Lordy.

Bullying is when you run home every day so you don't get physically beaten by bigger kids who hate you. Cyberbullying is ended when you hit that little X button, or click ignore, or go... I dunno... outside?

I blame teen suicides from Facebook on their parents. Parents should teach kids to deal with trouble, should teach kids to deal with self-esteem issues, and should recognized what's going on in their childrens' lives before it goes that far. Parents should take responsibility for all this.