Laura Vogel Period 1 Cyber Bullying Due to an exponential increase in public outcry, cyber bullying is being combatted all

across America. As defined by The National Crime Prevention Council, cyber bullying is when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. Cyber bullying may also be known as cyber stalking or cyber harassment as one advances into their adult years, but stalking and harassment usually bring with them harsher punishments such as a restraining order, probation, or jail. There were no changes in law regarding cyber bullying up until about 2004, when the media started to cover stories of teens who killed themselves because they were cyber bullied and researchers started to collect data on how often it was actually happening. Because people started to see just how much it was affecting society, and namely the younger generation, many states made the move to create strict laws. The laws regarding consequences to cyber bullying vary from state to state. In subsection 240.30 of New Yorks penal code, cyber bullying is considered aggravated harassment in the second degree. This particular type of harassment is considered a Class A misdemeanor, and is therefore punishable by up to one year in jail, as decided by a judge. California, as of January 1st, 2009, put into effect a law stating that cyber bullying and harassment need to be addressed by school officials, and the offender is at risk of being suspended or expelled. Some laws, such as those in Arkansas, cover cyber bullying and cyber harassment separately. The laws in Arkansas list the following groups as being the main targets for cyber bullying: race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, health conditions, et cetera.

These changes in law have greatly affected our society by bringing more attention to the fact that as technology changes, people change with it. Bullying is not just taking someones lunch money, anymore, because bullying has changed with the times. It has shown us the negative side of social networking and although your computer may be the way you connect with friends, it may be the way someone else anonymously berates their peers. The changes in laws also affect society because attention is not just brought to the dangers of computers, but cell phones and other mobile devices. Apps are now available on iPods and iPhones so that you can immediately report it if you are being cyber bullied. There is also an app called Snapchat, that makes it significantly safer for someone to send a picture to another person. The app allows you to pick a set amount of time someone may view your picture, and locks the picture so that the person viewing it is unable to save it to their own mobile device. The biggest affect these laws have had in our society is how schools handle cyber bullying. In many states, it has now become part of the schools responsibility to address the situation directly rather than waiting for a student to tell their parent and then having the parent go up to the school. School officials are not only responsible for addressing the situation at hand, but also for deciding the punishment, which in some cases is suspension or expulsion.