Online bullying compels states to act

By Justin M. Norton

updated 6:56 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2007

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Ryan Patrick Halligan was bullied for months online. Classmates sent the 13-year-old Essex Junction, Vt., boy instant messages calling him gay. He was threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly by so-called cyberbullies.

In 2003, Ryan killed himself.

“He just went into a deep spiral in eighth grade. He couldn’t shake this rumor,” said Ryan’s father, John Halligan, who became a key proponent of a state law that forced Vermont schools to put anti-bullying rules in place. He’s now pushing for a broader law to punish cyberbullying — often done at home after school — and wants every other state to enact laws expressly prohibiting it.

States from Oregon to Rhode Island are considering crackdowns to curb or outlaw the behavior in which kids taunt or insult peers on social Web sites like MySpace or via instant messages. Still, there is some disagreement over how effective crackdowns will be and how to do it.

‘The kids are forcing our hands’
“The kids are forcing our hands to do something legislatively,” said Rhode Island state Sen. John Tassoni, who introduced a bill to study cyberbullying and hopes to pass a cyberbullying law by late 2007.

But others argue that legislation would be ineffective. George McDonough, an education coordinator with Rhode Island’s Department of Education, concedes that the Internet has become an “instant slam book” but questions whether laws can stem bad behavior.

“You can’t legislate norms, you can only teach norms,” he said. “Just because it’s a law, they don’t necessarily follow it. I mean, look at the speed limit.”

The Internet allows students to insult others in relative anonymity, and experts who study cyberbullying say it can be more damaging to victims than traditional bullying like fistfights and classroom taunts.

Legislators and educators say there’s a need for guidelines outlining how to punish cyberbullying. They say the behavior has gone unchecked for years, with few laws or policies on the books explaining how to treat it.

Cyberbullying is often limited to online insults about someone’s physical appearance, friends, clothing or sexuality. But some cyberbullies are more creative. In Washington state, a bully stole a girl’s instant message username and used it to send out insulting messages.

Punishment vs. free speech
In New York, two high school boys were accused of operating an Internet site that listed girls’ “sexual secrets.” Prosecutors decided not to charge the boys because of free-speech concerns.

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said it will be difficult to draft a cyberbullying law that doesn’t infringe on free-speech rights.

“The fact that two teenagers say nasty things about each other is a part of growing up,” he said. “How much authority does a school have to monitor, regulate and punish activities occurring inside a student’s home?”

In Arkansas, the state Senate this month passed a bill calling on school districts to set up policies to address cyberbullying only after it was amended to settle concerns about students’ free-speech rights.

States are taking different approaches to the problem.

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