The current situation with cyber-bullying creates a slippery slope, as many people believe that the government telling people what they can and can not say on the internet is against the First Amendment, “ ...Congress shall make no law...abridging freedom of speech†(Bill of Rights Institute Paragraph 7). Others believe that through the monitoring the online postings thousands of suicides a year could be prevented. “Until recently, no laws specifically addressed cyberbullying†(FindLaw Paragraph 6), but even though these laws have been implemented, many people believe the punishments are not sufficient, “cyberbullying may often be treated as a civil, rather than a criminal matter†( FindLaw Paragraph 6). Many parents of victims believe that these situations should not be simply a civil matter, but should be judged as harshly as physical bullying, which can be charged as a criminal matter, I believe that the government should be able to step in for monitoring of a specific students web user if the said student has been accused of cyber-bullying, also that monitoring of the web’s population as a whole and deleting or restricting their postings is a direct infringement of the First Amendment. Cyber-bullying should be taken as seriously as physical bullying and therefore should be considered a criminal act, not just a civil
The current situation with cyber-bullying creates a slippery slope, as many people believe that the government telling people what they can and can not say on the internet is against the First Amendment, “ ...Congress shall make no law...abridging freedom of speech†(Bill of Rights Institute Paragraph 7). Others believe that through the monitoring the online postings thousands of suicides a year could be prevented. “Until recently, no laws specifically addressed cyberbullying†(FindLaw Paragraph 6), but even though these laws have been implemented, many people believe the punishments are not sufficient, “cyberbullying may often be treated as a civil, rather than a criminal matter†( FindLaw Paragraph 6). Many parents of victims believe that these situations should not be simply a civil matter, but should be judged as harshly as physical bullying, which can be charged as a criminal matter, I believe that the government should be able to step in for monitoring of a specific students web user if the said student has been accused of cyber-bullying, also that monitoring of the web’s population as a whole and deleting or restricting their postings is a direct infringement of the First Amendment. Cyber-bullying should be taken as seriously as physical bullying and therefore should be considered a criminal act, not just a civil