Attend any welcoming event at the beginning of a school year and you are guaranteed that the topic of cyberbullying will feature somewhere in the principal’s speech. Cyberbullying refers to when a person is bullied by another using electronic devices, such as cell phones and computers. The struggle against cyberbullying is real – parents and teachers have good reason to be concerned about it.
A common problem is how children perceive their actions on social media. When they are confronted with their actions you are more than likely to hear, “It was just a joke”. However, the damage has been done and another child’s feelings were hurt. This is also the core of the problem with cyberbullying since it is likely to have negative consequences on a child’s mental and emotional well-being.
Back to the principal’s speech. Parents will be told to keep an eye out for cyberbullying, restrict and/or control the use of electronic devices, and keep their children’s electronic devices in their bedrooms after sleeping time (since this is the time when cyberbullying mostly occurs). Fair enough, prevention is better than cure.
Unfortunately, cyberbullying cannot be prevented. The first step to take when you discover cyberbullying is to collect as much evidence as possible. It is usually best to take a screenshot of the message, post, or picture since it can easily be deleted by the cyberbully afterward.
The next step is to take action using any of the following legal remedies:
- use criminal and/or civil law remedies, such as obtaining a protection order,
- report a crime incidental to cyberbullying such as crimen iniuria (where the dignity of the victim is injured), sexual exploitation and grooming (threatening someone to obtain something from him/her, such as pornographic images) and criminal defamation (the intentional and unlawful publication of a matter concerning another person which damages his/her reputation).
- The Cybercrimes Act 19 of 2020 criminalises crimes specifically associated with cyberbullying such as electronic messages or social media posts towards a person that incites or threatens that person with violence or damage to his/her property and the disclosure of intimate images of an identifiable person without his/her consent.
A person who is found guilty of any of the above crimes in terms of the Cybercrimes Act may be sentenced to a fine and/or imprisonment that does not exceed three years. The Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 states that imprisonment may be imposed for children between the ages of 12 and 18, but only as a last resort and for the shortest period possible.
A court order can also be obtained to order an electronic service provider to remove or disable access to a message or image.
Don’t despair – there are ways to combat the digital threats of our era.
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