Resolved: cyberbullying should be a criminal offence

I debated against him a little while ago (. http://www.debate.org...), so now I'm here for the rematch! In my opening speech I will outline the problem we are facing, and my model. Then I will address some of my opponent's advance criticisms of this model, and present two firm principles that present a clear conclusion: That cyberbullying should be a criminal offense. Cyberbullying is the act of bullying somebody in cyberspace [1], usually through text messaging or the internet. Bullying can be defined as the act of being cruel to others [2], and manifests itself in cyberspace in many ways [6]. It happens to people of all ages and races, and it's on the rise. More alarming is that kids are doing it more than adults, so when these kids grow up, unless something is done soon, we will probably see the prevalence of cyberbullying increasing. Almost half of all US kids have been bullied while online [3]. That's not something that is OK, for a number of reasons. First, it harms the victim. In my native New Zealand, three teenagers recently committed suicide due to text-message abuse. Aside from physical harms to the victim, there are social and emotional harms that must be considered. As with any bullying incident people still feel emotionally scarred for years to come [4], made far worse by the face that they often do not know for certain the people who cause the harm (43% of the time according to one Canadian study [3]). Often the bullying is one of the tools of choice for sexual predators too [5]. Second, it harms the person committing the cyber bullying. It gives them the idea that they can exploit people freely, as they got away with in a cyber setting. Unfortunately this is not the case, and soon they will find themselves in trouble with the law anyway. It is better to learn from a small crime than from a big one, because after committing a more minor offence such as harassment one does not feel as "trapped" within a life of crime. Third, it also has far-reaching effects on the victim's family, friends and community, as they feel vulnerable to the cyber threat and victimized along with the victim. My model to overcome this problem is simple. An immediate, outright, international ban on cyberbullying by means of a convention. This will tackle the main reasons why people cyberbully. When people know the consequences and learn to respect others, cyberbullying incidents go down [7]. While the problem might not be totally solvable, at least having the threat is bad enough. Having an international law is a significant threat, and it teaches the main body of cybercriminals - children - that what they are doing is not OK. What I don't mean to do is set up a false dichotomy. Any prevention would be desirable, it is only that an international ban would be the most desirable because it would tell adult cyberbullies that they cannot simply hire somebody in another country to do the dirty work for them. But what my opponent must rationalize, and what I believe he has failed to do, is why cyberbullying should not be banned, should not be an element of our social contract and therefore should be legitimized, despite the clear harms I have shown. My opponent told you three things. First he said that conviction would be difficult. Well, maybe. Let's look at another crime where you often don't know your attacker and is hard to prove intent beyond doubt, among other challenges - rape. In the USA, the rape conviction rate is only about 12% according to a 1990 study [9]. Does this mean we should decriminalize rape as a futile exercise? Of course not, that's just silly. And by the way, all of the points about the first amendment are lies. Freedom of speech is regularly curtailed if it is hate speech, and the best lawyers agree there is no constitutional right to cyberbully [8]. Second he said that it does not remedy the harm. Well, does it ever? If I murder somebody and get shipped off to jail for life, how does that make it any better for the family of the person I killed? The point is that when people do something wrong, society is obliged to impose some form of penalty upon them for the wrong they have done. I can demonstrate that taking one life is an equivalent harm to the loss of my own life (in jail). In the same way, the harm done by cyberbullying can be remedied. He said that education does remedy the wrong. So apparently if I murder somebody then the wrong will be remedied if somebody tells me "don't do that again! " No, it won't. The harm will be removed only when I have paid the price for my crime. The same is true for any crime, including cyberbullying. Third he said that the current laws are adequate. At this point he appears to be supporting the current laws of the USA, which ban cyberbullying [8]. Great, so therefore my opponent accepts that the ban on cyberbullying is a good thing and, as a general rule, we should ban cyberbullying. I am glad my opponent agrees! But none of that is what this debate is about. The two principles I said that I would bring to this debate are freedom from fear and innocence without guilty proof. A recent report showed that 5% of American kids are scared for their safety after cyberbullying [3]. Millions of kids are scared, in fear, because of cyberbullying. If 5% of American kids had become scared for their safety in the real world, they would have long past measures to counteract the problem. However, people think that if it happens in the virtual world it must be OK. It is not OK. Virtual gambling is as much a crime as real world gambling, so why can the same principle not be applied when people's whole mentalities are at stake? We pay our governments millions to protect us from external and internal threats to our safety - through the police and defense force - and here my opponent suggests we should ignore a significant segment of the population because the medium through which this fear is propagated is not on his select list. Second, cyberbullying makes it too easy to victimize people without guilty proof. I could post on my opponent's wall right now ("you're a _____! ") and he'd be instantly victimized. The trouble is, I don't have any positive proof of anything about my opponent. If we assume innocence without guilty proof, a good portion of the cyberbullying would not happen. Cyberbullying is wrong. I'm proud to oppose, and I'd be proud to have your vote to win this motion for the victims and all affected. I await my opponent's first crossfire anxiously. [1] - . http://en.wiktionary.org... [2] - . http://en.wiktionary.org... [3] - . http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] - . http://www.stopcyberbullying.org... [5] - . http://en.wikipedia.org... [6] - . http://www.stopcyberbullying.org... [7] - . http://www.stopcyberbullying.org... [8] - . http://www.cyberbully.org... [9] - . http://webcache.googleusercontent.com...