Resolved: Cyber bullying should be a criminal offense.

I'm very excited to take this topic as my first debate since I just completed an English final that was over the same topic. In order to keep things (relatively) organized I will respond to each point in numbered paragraphs starting out by rebutting the third paragraph, "My first contention. .. ". 1) While creating laws to deter acts that we deem bad is usually considered good it is seldom easy to work out into real legislation, and it is doubly difficult when dealing with a subject like speech. Legislating forms of speech are like very delicate dances of balance, balancing power (that the government has with enforcing the law), and not crossing too far and infringing on a person's right to freedom of expression. One example of just such tricky wording lies in the legislation you mention at the end of your argument. From the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act - "Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. " Essentially the proposed law is saying that the you can be imprisoned for up to two years if what you said online is deemed "harassment" by a court. The term harassment is defined by Dictionary. com as "to disturb persistently; torment, as with troubles or cares; bother continually; pester; persecute". Judging from the forums on this very site I would say that roughly half of the users would be behind bars under this law. 2) The difference between live harassment and online harassment is that you can turn off a computer but you can't turn off a person which is why harassment is punishable in the real world and not online. If a person is being teased on a computer they have the option of turning the computer off or all together ignoring it, something they can't do if the bully is right there with them. 3) As I stated earlier the easiest method of dealing with cyberbullies is by not listening to them, whether that's done by turning off the electronic device or simply ignoring them. Above all though, the main lesson to be learned is, people will be rude and insulting in any way and any place they can. The only reason cyberbullying is such a new occurence is because the online community is a new occurence. The best thing to do is learn how to ignore such people and move on, a skill that will help immensely later in life. 4) The death of people as young as Megan Meier is always tragic, however when such tragedies strike people always want someone to point a finger at. Even though the adult woman was cruel to the girl and absolutely irresponsible in post rude remarks about someone less than half her age, she did not kill Megan Meier, Megan Meier killed Megan Meier. It may sound cruel to blame the 13 year old for her own death but that's because when I say death it makes it sound like it wasn't her fault. Just because someone was treated exceptionally poorly doesn't mean that blame should be transfered to the bully. This should be more an indicator that we need more education on how to deal with bullies ourselves than that we need to try and make the bullies go away.