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.
Haha, might give them grounds to ban us ‘bullies’ on FreeRepublic for making the left7ards cry.
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3126612/posts
Duh. Why not just not look at their emails or only release their email addresses to a selected few. Also, who compels any mentally inadequate nitwit teen to go on Facebook.or Twitter? Looks like CO legislature is gutting the 1st Amendment to save a few inadequate nitwits.
I’m sure this law won’t be abused.
Heard they were calling it the TigersBlackEye bill for the ruthless, predatory, combative style of its namesake?
Exactly! Just think about how we let the leftists have it (in print), when one dares to come on this forum spewing their liberal garbage. "Oh, heavens, they even zotted me".
But the Bullies of the Gay Gestapo will still be able to bash Christian heterosexuals at their pleasure.
Does this mean I have to quit calling FReepers whom I disagree with:
Idiots
Clowns
Illiterate
???
more “hate crimes” legislation???
Has anyone read the 1st amendment?
Yeah, but our beloved “public servants” don’t care. Whatever puts money into their pockets.
A similar law passed in WA State a few years ago. A local police force [!!] tried to get charges against a civilian who created unflattering cartoons about members of the force! I think it was reported here in FR.
I don’t know what the Hell is in the water or mountains in CO. But that state is seriously becoming California’s baby brother.
Now define cyberbullying.
Our friends up north found out how fluid that definition is.
(Hint: a website just recently shut down)
Too many laws.
With this law, only an accusation of mental distress.
“I don’t know what the Hell is in the water or mountains in CO. But that state is seriously becoming California’s baby brother.”
The Kali people with a few bucks left Kali to get away from the wackiness; unfortunately, those people were also wacky so they’re turning Colorado into the same type of cesspool they thought they escaped. My son and DIL live in Colorado so I see it frequently - flower children, especially in Boulder.
“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.”
Bullying, harassing, and threatening people is not “free speech.” Children have killed themselves over bullying, and people who have been bullied in the past often have continuing psychological issues. The internet has made bullying far more accessible and pervasive.
An adult can be arrested and prosecuted for harassing and threatening others. It is nonsensical to shrug off the same behavior by children and then pour salt in the wound by telling the victims to just shut up and submit to the bullying.
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