Resolved: cyberbullying should be a criminal offence

This is a Public Forum Debate. Those that don't know Public Forum format, don't accept this debate. Round 1 will be Speech 1. Round 2 will be Crossfire 1. Round 3 will be Speech 2. Round 4 will be Crossfire 2. Round 5 will be Summary. ----------- Making cyberbullying a criminal offense is ridiculous. Not only would convicting a cyberbully be extremely difficult, but more importantly, making cyberbullying a crime would not reduce the damage caused by bullying. In addition, current laws are adequate in dealing with cyberbullying. Contention 1: convicting a cyberbully would be extremely difficult According to law professor Susan Brenner and juris doctor Megan Rehberg, to get a conviction against a defendant for bombarding someone with emotionally distressing messages, one needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to cause the inflicted harm. This is very difficult, especially if only one harmful message was sent. How does one know what another's intentions are? How does one prove to others what they are? In the case of harassment, the act of harassing or annoying someone, the Supreme Court has ruled that the term annoy is too vague, as something that annoys one will not annoy another. Getting around this ruling would be an astronomical challenge. Convicting (and making a law against cyberbullying) is made even more difficult by the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."(http://topics.law.cornell.edu...) Today's press and conversations reside at least partially on the Internet. To place restrictions on what one can type on the Internet would be a clear violation of the First Amendment. Although an exception to the First Amendment is speech that harms children, that applies mainly to television and radio at certain times. Speech on the Internet has full First Amendment protection. Contention 2: the damage from bullying cannot be reduced by criminalizing it Bullying is an act that commonly occurs in schools of all regions and income levels. Cyberbullying is no different. Is cyberbullying any less damaging to the individual and to society than traditional bullying? Should we turn a blind eye on traditional bullying and vainly assert our authority over cyberspace? Is traditional bullying even possible to prevent? Apparently not, since it has and continues to occur in our best schools. Cyberbullying is also impossible to prevent. According to jezebel.com, "45 states now have some sort of anti-cyberbullying law, but harassment researcher Catherine Hill says there's no indication yet that they actually prevent bullying." If it's not possible to prevent any type of bullying, what use is it to turn the government's attention towards cyberbullying? How many lives can we truly save when we cannot prevent victims from being abused? The answer to cyberbullying is not law enforcement, but social education. According to Newsday, "Statistics from the state Department of Education show a nearly 11 percent decline on the Island in incidents reported as intimidation or bullying from 2006-2007 to 2008-2009. Long Island schools offer many types of anti-bullying programs." People need to be educated on how to deal with abusive and relentless people. People need to know what to do when they are abused or when someone they know is abused. People need to know that suicide is not the answer and that there are better solutions to their problems. The government would get much greater returns investing their money in social education rather than new prisons for cyberbullies. Contention 3: current laws are adequate when dealing with cyberbullying According to the Congressional Research Service, limitations on the freedom of speech and press are obscenities (profanity), child pornography, true threats, inciting panic when there's no danger, and defamation (slander and libel). The types of cyberbullying are spreading rumors, targeting, identity theft, sharing embarrassing photos and e-mails, excluding, and harassment (according to the Media Awareness Network). Spreading rumors is defamation and is illegal. Identity theft is illegal. Sharing photos of a minor without their parents' permission is illegal. Harassment based on any trait that cyberbullies could think of to attack is illegal. That means that most forms of cyberbullying are illegal. The forms that aren't illegal are forms of traditional bullying that are commonplace in schools. These should be dealt with by counselors, and not law officials. Therefore, it is evident that cyberbullying should not be a criminal offense. Convicting cyberbullies would be difficult, damage from bullying would not be reduced, and the new law would be over-controlling since current laws already solve the problem.