Idaho vs. Cyberbullies
A member of the state legislature in Idaho has announced plans to re-introduce legislation targeted at prohibiting harassment on the Internet, including social networking sites. He wants to expand harassment laws so they apply to online communication including e-mails, text messages and posted comments on personal blogs and related Web sites. Last year, the effort fell flat amid concern from attorneys on the House judiciary committee; those legislators applauded his idea but raised worries about its enforcement.
I think a bigger thing to pay attention to is the specific wording of the bill. A bill passed to fight cyberbullying should be a resource for true victims, and not a platform for frivolous lawsuits. That being said, I applaud any legislator that wants to take a stab at this popular, controversial and most important issue.
Of course, parents shouldn’t be sitting around waiting for the government to figure it out… they need to be doing what they can inside their own homes to protect their kids. (read: be using PC Pandora computer monitoring software)
September 8, 2009
Hartgen plans for second try on Internet bill
By Jared S. Hopkins, Times-News writerRep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, says he plans to re-introduce legislation at the 2010 Legislature targeted at prohibiting harassment on the Internet, including social networking sites.
Hartgen, a former newspaper publisher, still wants to expand harassment laws so they apply to online communication including e-mails, text messages and posted comments on personal blogs and related Web sites. Hartgen has cited the 2006 case in Missouri in which a 13-year-old girl committed suicide after receiving online taunts from a woman posing as a teenager on MySpace. The incident prompted that state to update its laws.
“There have been quite a few cases this year of cyber-bullying noted around the country of one kind or another,” he said. “You’d like to have a tool in place that could deal with that.”
Last year, Hartgen’s effort fell flat amid concern from attorneys on the House judiciary committee. Those legislators applauded his idea but raised worries about its enforcement. He said he was trying to upgrade the state’s laws to existing technology.
“Everybody is Twittering, Face-booking, YouTubing, Myspacing and e-mailing each other. I read the other day the average teenager has 2,000 separate text messages a month, “Hartgen said.
Hartgen says his new effort addresses their concerns because the statues will be under a new section and not build off of the telephone statute.
“The basic concept I think had pretty good support,” he said. “I kind of got caught between the two lawyer groups – the prosecutors on the one hand who liked what they had, and the attorneys on the committee who felt that maybe what we had was too strong anyway.”
The bill wouldn’t affect public speech or voters contacting their public officials.
Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, last year opposed it over enforcement and thought it should be handled by the federal government because it’s the Internet, not just telephones.
Last week she said that she thinks the issue might need to be broad to include items such as text messaging.
“I’d like to hear from school people and people who work with young people about the problems,” she said. “It seems like there’s some other things that might be related.”
Heather Reilly, legislative counsel for the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association who worked with Hartgen last session, said she hasn’t seen a draft for the bill yet. But she said the prosecutors said there’s currently nothing that addresses Internet harassment.
“From our perspective, our statutes have not kept up with technology, including with text messages as well,” he said. “Right now all we have is telephone … that’s pretty old school.”
She added that even with any federal laws, it would be a good idea for the state and local officials to address the matter.
The debate of “cyber-bullying” isn’t unique to Missouri. A number of states have passed legislation targeted at cyber-bullying and there are several Web sites devoted to education.
