Cyber Bullying In Australia Essay

1063 Words5 Pages

Within Australia, cyberbullying has emerged as a prevalent and pervasive social issue that the law has had to respond to. Various legal mechanisms have been utilised to attempt to regulate cyberbullying and its effects, such as legislation, police enforcement, and the court. In the following extended response, cyberbullying will be defined as a legal issue, and legal mechanisms will be outlined in how effective they work to achieve regulation towards the frequent problem. Cyberbullying will also be established in how it is truly regulated and enforced. As a legal issue, cyberbullying involves the repeated use of digital technology to harass, intimidate, or harm individuals. It associates behaviours such as threats, defamation and invasion …show more content…

An example of a law reform aimed at addressing cyberbullying and linked to police enforcement is the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Act 2021, which introduced new provisions to reinforce the legal framework for tackling online harassment and protecting minors from cyberbullying. Essentially, under this reform, the law imposed stricter penalties for individuals found guilty of cyberbullying, which is successfully designed to create a powerful message that online harassment is intolerable. Statistically, in 2021, 44% of young Australians reported cyberbullying, a 19% decrease from 2020 (According to eSafety Commissioner Report). Although the number is still big, it has been proven that cyberbullying cases have decreased, making the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Act 2021 successful to a moderate extent. Another essential law reform that has been recently established in Australia, is the Criminal Code Amendment (Bullying) Act 2018, which introduced the offence of ‘using an electronic device to menace, harass, or threaten’ as a crime. This act was a significant step toward acknowledging the harmful impact cyberbullying can have on individuals, especially psychologically and …show more content…

Specifically, within the ‘Olivia Melville Case’ and ‘Charlotte Dawson Case’, work to an intermediate level of indicating the harshness of cyberbullying. The strengths of these cases include increased awareness and public discourse, whereas the limitations encompass ongoing harassment and victim blaming. Hence, these strengths and challenges synergise to achieve large social media attention and improved legislation, but do not effectively resolve the issue and can cause post-traumatic

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