Posted on 02/24/2014 5:56:15 PM PST by Red Steel
DENVER — Colorado lawmakers gave initial approval to legislation that would make cyberbullying a crime.
Cyberbullying has increasingly become a part of modern childhood where young children have access to social media sites and near constant Internet access on smart phones.
The House Education Committee approved the legislation, HB 1131,on a unanimous bipartisan vote of 12-0.
The bill, which now moves to the House Appropriations Committee, would make it illegal for someone to harass a minor online if the victim feels the threat puts them in serious emotional distress or fear for their life.
“Bullying will never stop if we just stand by and do nothing,” said Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, the bill’s sponsor. “Our children need to be free from fear.”
The crime would be added to the state law on harassment as a class 2 misdemeanor.
A number of teens described their experiences of being bullied before lawmakers Monday afternoon.
“I’d get it at school and then log on to the internet when I got home and see it there too, just all this hatred, things like ‘no one wants you there, it’d be better off if you just killed yourself’,” Ashley Berry told FOX31 Denver.
“It makes you feel like no one’s really there for you. You start to have suicidal thoughts, wondering maybe it would be better if I wasn’t here. It makes you feel alone and like no one is there for you.
“If this bill passes, at least we’ll know that even if our parents or our teachers aren’t listening, the state will be there for us.”
Highlands Ranch mother Naomi Lowell told us in November about the bullying her 13-year-old daughter received.
Messages sent to her Facebook page included threats and “awful stuff like, Go kill yourself,” Lowell said.
Lowell said she was able to work with her daughter’s school to stop the bullying. That is often the only course available to parents whose children have been bullied.
Some district attorney’s have filled harassment charges in cases of extreme bullying. However, statutorily, the crime can be difficult to prosecute. The new Colorado law is intended to fix this.
While I understand your perspective, more laws such as this is not the answer. Where are the parents in all of this? Why do these kids have unfiltered internet access? Why do they need to be on social networking sites?
I have a 10 year old and a 13 year old. Neither have complete unfiltered access to the Internet and neither are involved in social networking sights.
Sadly, not all children have parents who are actively involved. Some are in a position where they feel that their parents would do nothing to help even if they were to talk about the situation, and believe that they have nowhere to go, no one to advocate for them.
Even with caring parents, if a child does not have unsupervised access to the internet, what about their phone? Many parents give a phone to their children to keep track of them—how hard is it for bullies to send them hateful text messages?
I think it is the wrong message to allow bullies unfettered access to their victims, while telling the victims and their families that they have no legal recourse and it is up to them to stop the bullying... if they can. Some families have had to move to remove their children from bullying situations.
Laws on bullying are long overdue, IMHO.
I have to agree with you.
Thing is, that parents are not getting their spoiled bullying brats into shape and since no one is taking responsibility, a new law has to be created to deal effectively with the issue.
Blame the enabling parents when things like this happen.
"Laws on bullying are long overdue, IMHO."And in my honest opinion there are already way too many laws on the books. I believe we need to start eliminating many of these laws.
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Who are these d-heads? Do they have websites? Someone needs to ream them new ones. I think that Fields moron is one of the anti-gun arsewipes who screwed the pooch last year. And by that I mean she does funny things with her dog.
No, of course I was kidding.
Very strange times we live in.
Age of weakness and decay.
If anything we need more samurai
That gets into a whole nother can of worms. Are the parents aware of their child's behavior and letting it continue? Are they completely unaware until they get a call from the school principal? Have they been trying to deal with their child's behavior while the child resists any kind of correction?
Unfortunately, there are no standard situations.
I would agree about the need to eliminate laws, but in this area, the laws have left a huge gap to the point where a child can be bullied to the point of suicide and there is no legal action possible against the perpetrator. In past cases, even when bullies have been arrested, they have walked because there is no legal framework with which to prosecute.
This link tells of a particularly horrible act of cyberbullying that caused a girl to commit suicide. The perpetrators were let off completely scot-free because there were no laws on the books to prohibit their acts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Megan_Meier
It is because of situations like this that people are demanding laws.
I know, so was I. lol
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