Cyberbullying Should Not Be A Criminal Offense

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Con Resolved: Cyberbullying should be a criminal offense. The United States legal definition of Cyber bullying is,” Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.” This is not grounds for a criminal offense. Because the definition for cyber bullying is so vague, it would be difficult to judge and interpret what this law would entail since the harm would be different for every person. There are many people who will feel as though others are intending to harm them and there are no true lines, which define what is cyber bullying is and what it is not. Making cyber bullying a criminal offense would be a ridiculous and near impossible task. Not only would convicting a cyber bully be extremely difficult, but more importantly, making cyber bullying a crime would not reduce the damage caused by bullying. My first contention is that it would be extremely difficult to convict a cyber bully of their crime. According to Jonathon Strickland; Discovery News; April 1, 2010, “Cyber bullying is just an extension of classic bullying and that it should be handled on the local level. This proves that there is almost no defined difference between cyber bullying and regular bullying, so it should be handled as if it were regular bullying. It would be extremely difficult to prosecute a cyber bully because it would be similar to trying to prosecute someone for regular bullying and it is not fair to arrest someone for plainly bothering someone. If someone were to convict a cyber bully they would have to deal with the questions, 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

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