Not too long ago, a child could find refuge at home. Despite being made fun of at school for one reason or another, or not having anyone to play with at recess, a kid could go home at the end of the day to a family who accepted and loved him. Home was a safe place free from the other children who made fun of him. The bullies in the class would have to make an extra effort to bully outside of school. They had to pick up the phone, without their own parents being aware, and dial their target’s house for a prank call, or find a way to physically travel to their target’s home to ding-dong-ditch, or play some other prank without being seen in the neighborhood. Social media has slowly crept into younger and younger generations’ lives in the past decade. Teens joined MySpace and instant messaged with friends, which allowed them to connect with friends virtually and outside of school. While this gave the opportunity to develop friendships without having to physically be in the same room as a friend, it also opened the door to advanced bullying. When Facebook became available to the general public and not just those in university, it took off. High scholars and middle scholars created accounts and added their classmates to their friend lists.

Bullies were given the ticket to anonymity and invisibility. In the virtual world, it is often difficult to judge a person’s reaction and tone. The comment could be intended to be sarcastic, but when just reading it off the screen, could be interpreted as serious. Feelings are easily hurt and arguments take off because of minor misunderstanding. In grade-school children, it is far too easy to post about a classmate and never fully understand how the post made them feel. Reactions are made and things are typed and sent before thinking of what they typed emotionally means. Kids will say things they would never say to someone’s face because they don’t see the tears, anger, or upset facial expressions of their peers when the interaction is online. School administrations have to decide how to address this new type of bullying. In Massachusetts, schools have given police the reigns for how bullying should be punished all together. (See: ) Criminalizing bullying makes a huge impact in the lives of children. It is far too easy, especially with kids who are still learning about human relations, to make hurtful comments online. This could go on for a long time before a parent or teacher finds out.

By then, it is too late. Someone has gotten hurt or the bullying has gone too far, requiring police involvement. What used to be punishable with a week of detention or suspension from school now has legal consequences. When we think of children convicted of crimes, we imagine a juvenile detention center full of uncontrollable young adults who are at their last resort of restraint. Do we really want to group a child, who is perhaps the victim of bullying himself, who has bullied a classmate in the same category as a child who killed another? Massachusetts says yes, make them criminals. Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt anymore by allowing school authorities to handle the situation, send them straight to the police. While the victims of bullies are often traumatized by the taunts they face, the bully will be equally traumatized in being accused of a crime. An attorney must be hired putting financial strain on the family, court appearances require missing work and school, gossip in the school about the case will leave the child will be stigmatized. All of these are things anyone accused of a crime will go through. The difference is an adult accused of a crime has developed emotionally and is supposed to know what is acceptable to society and they are able to cope more than a child in the same situation would. So why does Massachusetts suddenly think it is ok to treat a mistake as a crime? One student committed suicide and the legislature responded, dramatically. While these students certainly did take their bulling too far, should they really be the ones responsible for the death of their classmate?

Cyberstalking is a recent form of criminal behavior involving persistent threats or unwanted attention using the Internet and other means of computer communications. With more and more people going “online,” the opportunity to target someone on the Internet is becoming limitless. Cyberstalkers visit chat rooms, discussion forums or message boards in search of victims. The range of cyberstalking can range from aggressive and hostile email, chat room bullying, leaving abusing messages in guest books to sending e-viruses, tracing a victim’s computer and identity theft. Like regular stalkers, cyberstalkers want to intimidate and control their victims. Cyberstalkers do it with the use of the Internet. The Internet can be used to trace the victim’s real name and address. For instance, it is remarkably easy to find out what party a victim is planning to attend and when by checking the information on a site such as Facebook. The use of technology makes locating a victim easier than ever before. Anyone can type in certain key words into the computer which will bring up a myriad of internet datafurnishing companies that supply private records and information online, either free or for a nominal fee. The internet can do what private detectives of the past only dreamed of doing. States are attempting to deal with this new form of criminal behavior. Early in 2009, the state of California enacted a set of new stalking laws. These laws make it a misdemeanor to publish information on the Internet which describes a teacher or his or her family or mentions where the teacher lives with the intent of having another person commit a crime against that teacher.

The penalty is up to one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine. This law can also be invoked to protect people other than teachers against cyber-threats. It is now considered a misdemeanor in California to place any person in fear of his or her safety by means of Internet threats and threats using cell phones, PDAs, video recorders or pagers. Several cases of cyberstalking have been prosecuted under California’s new cyberstalking laws. In the state’s very first case, the state prosecuted a man who used the internet to impersonate his victim, a young woman who’d spurned his attentions. Pretending to be the victim, the man posted her phone number and address and stated that she had rape fantasies she wanted fulfilled. Strange men started to show up at the victim’s apartment ready to rape her and became angry when she refused. The cyberstalker was sentenced to six years in prison. In another case, a graduate student from the University of San Diego cyberstalked five female students for a year. He sent hundreds of threatening emails. The graduate student was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. He told police the women were ridiculing him. The victims, in fact, had never met this man. Prior to California’s anti-cyberstalking laws, the crime was difficult to prosecute. Deidre Des Jardins, a student at UC-Santa Cruz, started getting violet emails from her ex-boyfriend. Some threats were directed at her, others dealt with violence in general. Local law enforcement agents were unable to do anything since the act of cyberstalking had not been clearly defined as a crime.

The campus police, also, were unable to act, even though the threatening emails continued for several years. Deidre was told that since some of the messages dealt with violence in general and not specifically with her, it didn’t fit the definition of cyberstalking. Her ex-boyfriend was never arrested. Cyberstalking can evolve into real-life stalking where the victim is harassed by excessive telephone calls, vandalism, trespassing and even physical assault. Some cyberstalkers know their victims. Others have some kind of imaginary connection to the ones they stalk. It is not unusual for a celebrity cyberstalker to become violent when his fantasy is threatened. In a recent news story, a cyberstalker sent cyberthreats to a Knox County state’s attorney because the stalker believed that the state’s attorney was interfering in his relationship with model Cheryl Tiegs. The cyberstalker was obsessed with Tiegs and had been stalking her for years. She had never met him. The relationship existed in the cyberstalker’s mind only. Cyberstalking is a real threat. Due to limited laws, the only real defense to use caution when revealing personal information on the Internet. The less, the better.