Resolved:Should Cyber bullying be a criminal Offence? (Serious/Prepared Debaters Only Please)

I shall attack my opponents case and rebuild my own, thank you. My opponent's first reason is "Most Cases of Cyberbullying are not to be considered criminal offences. " This is one that I do not agree with for multiple outstanding reasons. He suggests that we should CONTINUE to use parents, schools, and others working together to address the problem. This is something that according to my research by the Nation Crime Prevention Council that the amount of cyber bullying victims and the amount of people using methods such as cyber bullying had stayed STABLE and actually increased a little bit until BEFORE the first law was passed in North Carolina. It then dropped to 20.8 percent which cut almost exactly in half. As you can see, my opponent lacks the ability to understand that cyber bullying has DECREASED in America and continues to do so, while his methods have failed to help the unfortunate victims of Cyber Bullying today. My opponent's second is "Cyberbullying is decresing, contrary to what one may beliveve. " He believes that cyber bullying has been decreasing although it has NOT. Teenagers of America and of the United States CONTINUE to be disobedient and continue to lack the understanding that cyber bullying can lead to such horrible outcomes for the victim. Methods such as counseling, teaching, and prevention programs have FAILED to work and decrease Cyber Bullying. As Cyber Bullying continues to rise due to today's technological era; we must put a stop to it. Using Girl Scouts is not a reliable comparison as you are using children of too young of an age; we must include the rest of the teenage population of America or else the comparison will become invalid. Also, my opponent uses a source Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine stating that PHYSICAL BULLYING (Note: PHYSICAL) has decreases. Today we are NOT debating whether Physical Bullying shall be a law, we although ARE debating whether cyber bullying is a law. Physical Bullying is a type of bullying which is used directly while cyber bullying is a type of bullying that is used INDIRECTLY, so there is no possible way you can put theses two topics together. My opponent's third reason is "Making Cyberbullying a criminal offence would be loaded with trouble. " He often refers to cyber bullying being defended by the First Amendment's Freedom of Speech. Cyber Bullying is NOT defended by the first amendment. Freedom of Speech only pertains to the government not being able to punish you for what you say. It is used to protect the citizens from the government. It doesn't apply to private citizens saying anything against another private citizen. As a citizen of the United States you are not allowed to slander people and say harmful thing toward someone, as this then destroys your freedom of speech. An extra point I would like to bring up is DEFAMATION. Defamation is basically when you spread false rumors about someone; a basic concept in cyber bullying. Often, cyber bullying defendants are often prosecuted for defamation. You are unauthorized to spread false and untrue statements about another human. If so you are able to be prosecuted which is something most cyber bullying cases are counted for.