Canada looking at criminalizing cyber-bullying

"The Internet is in most ways a great development for our society," Harper said at a roundtable on ways to protect youth from cyber-bullying.

"Unfortunately, it has other purposes and other uses, and young people are extremely vulnerable."

In order to better protect children from online threats, Harper said Ottawa is "expediting a review of the Criminal Code... to identify potential gaps with regard to cyber-bullying, cyber-intimidation, cyber-assault."

At the round-table event in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Harper was joined by the parents of two teenage girls who recently committed suicide after years of cyber-bullying and whose stories have provoked outrage in Canada and abroad.

Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, died in hospital last month in the port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, after a suicide attempt that her mother blames on an assault and subsequent barrage of taunts by schoolmates calling her a "slut."

Parsons was said to have been drunk at a party when she was raped by four boys. One of the suspects later posted a photo of the incident online.

In a similar tragedy, 6,000 kilometers (3,730 miles) away in British Columbia province, Amanda Todd, 15, committed suicide last October after being tormented by an anonymous cyberbully.

In a YouTube video watched by millions worldwide, Todd said she "cried every night" after a photo of her breasts, flashed in an online video chat with a stranger a few years earlier, was distributed in her community in British Columbia. "I have nobody. I need someone."

After several failed suicide attempts involving cutting herself and drinking bleach and then posting the YouTube video describing her sadness, Todd finally killed herself on October 10.

Police investigated both cases, but no charges were laid.

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/canada-looking-at-criminalizing-cyber-bullying-pm-365523

Conflicted on this. I'm not sure how they'll enforce it and all of the cimes that are related to cyber-bullying are already illegal. Still, I'm glad that the government is looking into these cases rather than doing nothing.

tldr

that ought to learn ya for laughing at star wars kid.

take that internet.

Bullying is too broad of a term and is completely based on perception. I think a better step would be to not give people nude pics of yourself and stop taking what people say on the internet so seriously.

Bullying is too broad of a term and is completely based on perception.Pirate700

Look get a gun and shoot yourself if you wanna commit suicide,who the hell drinks bleach Bucked20

Bullying is too broad of a term and is completely based on perception. I think a better step would be to not give people nude pics of yourself and stop taking what people say on the internet so seriously.

Pirate700

[QUOTE="Bucked20"]Look get a gun and shoot yourself if you wanna commit suicide,who the hell drinks bleach heeweesRus

[QUOTE="heeweesRus"][QUOTE="Bucked20"]Look get a gun and shoot yourself if you wanna commit suicide,who the hell drinks bleach Bucked20

Individual privacy is a complicated concept on the net. A right that is breached often and easily but one that is hard to protect due to the assumption of being anonymous while posting. Furthermore removing things from the net is practically impossible. In theory is quite easy to destroy someones life on the net without suffering from severe repercussions. A law like cyber-bullying may combat this problem.

[QUOTE="Bucked20"][QUOTE="heeweesRus"]Listening to your music would also work.Pirate700

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="Bucked20"] Being around you would also do the trick Aljosa23

Cyberbullying is a matter of perception. If you're stupid or unstable enough to be cyberbullied then you probably deserve it.

People are too sensitive these days. Bullying only works when the person being bullied let's it affect them.Zeviander

I think this would be more towards children. I really hope adults don't actually take teasing around the water fountain at their 9-5 job seriously... Fightingfan

[QUOTE="Zeviander"]People are too sensitive these days. Bullying only works when the person being bullied let's it affect them.Fightingfan

That is incredibly stupid. If someone commits suicide then it is his own fault. A person is responsible for his own actions and only his as long as there is no application of physical coercion. To blame a mentally unstable teenager's self-destructive behaviour on someone else will only allow and encourage more of that behaviour. If you show your breasts to strangers on the internet and then kill yourself when you realize that people are seeing your breasts then you are an idiot.Laihendi

[QUOTE="Laihendi"]That is incredibly stupid. If someone commits suicide then it is his own fault. A person is responsible for his own actions and only his as long as there is no application of physical coercion. To blame a mentally unstable teenager's self-destructive behaviour on someone else will only allow and encourage more of that behaviour. If you show your breasts to strangers on the internet and then kill yourself when you realize that people are seeing your breasts then you are an idiot.Ace6301

Conflicted on this. I'm not sure how they'll enforce it and all of the cimes that are related to cyber-bullying are already illegal. Still, I'm glad that the government is looking into these cases rather than doing nothing.Aljosa23

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]Conflicted on this. I'm not sure how they'll enforce it and all of the cimes that are related to cyber-bullying are already illegal. Still, I'm glad that the government is looking into these cases rather than doing nothing.Laihendi

[QUOTE="Ace6301"][QUOTE="Laihendi"]That is incredibly stupid. If someone commits suicide then it is his own fault. A person is responsible for his own actions and only his as long as there is no application of physical coercion. To blame a mentally unstable teenager's self-destructive behaviour on someone else will only allow and encourage more of that behaviour. If you show your breasts to strangers on the internet and then kill yourself when you realize that people are seeing your breasts then you are an idiot.Aljosa23

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

[QUOTE="Ace6301"] I think I speak for everyone when I ask if you've ever interacted with other human beings.Laihendi

You have no idea what you are talking about. I have many suicidal tendencies and I choose not to act on them because I am a rational man. I take responsibility for my own life, and when I decide to end it that will be solely my decision.Laihendi

[QUOTE="Laihendi"]That is incredibly stupid. If someone commits suicide then it is his own fault. A person is responsible for his own actions and only his as long as there is no application of physical coercion. To blame a mentally unstable teenager's self-destructive behaviour on someone else will only allow and encourage more of that behaviour. If you show your breasts to strangers on the internet and then kill yourself when you realize that people are seeing your breasts then you are an idiot.Ace6301

People are too sensitive these days. Bullying only works when the person being bullied let's it affect them.Zeviander

But that's bullshit what you write.

I mean if someone physically abuses you, socially isolates you and makes you feel like shit then of course it will affect you, at least eventually.

And it's not really that bullied people should be less sensitive. It's actually exactly the opposite of what you write: People these days should be MORE sensitive in how they treat each other.

And it all starts with the environment at home. The way we raise our children and what we teach them is exactly what they will give back when they grow up.

[QUOTE="Ace6301"][QUOTE="Laihendi"]That is incredibly stupid. If someone commits suicide then it is his own fault. A person is responsible for his own actions and only his as long as there is no application of physical coercion. To blame a mentally unstable teenager's self-destructive behaviour on someone else will only allow and encourage more of that behaviour. If you show your breasts to strangers on the internet and then kill yourself when you realize that people are seeing your breasts then you are an idiot.Laihendi

Bullying is too broad of a term and is completely based on perception. I think a better step would be to not give people nude pics of yourself and stop taking what people say on the internet so seriously.

Pirate700

[QUOTE="Ace6301"]I think I speak for everyone when I ask if you've ever interacted with other human beings.Laihendi

If you force all responsibility into that person, you're killing that person too. Goes both ways.

Funny how bullying wasn't a huge problem fourty years ago, and then it was probably much worse. 

Funny how bullying wasn't a huge problem fourty years ago, and then it was probably much worse. 

sherman-tank1

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]Laihendi

fixed.

your welcome lai.

Bullying is too broad of a term and is completely based on perception. I think a better step would be to not give people nude pics of yourself and stop taking what people say on the internet so seriously.

[QUOTE="Fightingfan"][QUOTE="Zeviander"]People are too sensitive these days. Bullying only works when the person being bullied let's it affect them.Pirate700

Look get a gun and shoot yourself if you wanna commit suicide,who the hell drinks bleach Bucked20

Because a 15 year old living in Canada will easily have access to a gun... right? Dumbass....

OT: More silly laws to waste money on.