Betancourt 1

Jazmin Betancourt

Professor Martin

English 102

February 28th, 2018.

Online Harassment and the Law.

A journalist publishes an article; treats of rape are made in the comments area. A blogger

says thing fans do not agree with: he is doxed and treats are made. A video game developer

breaks up with her boyfriend: her personal information is circulated in the internet and she is

inundated with treats involving murder and rape. All of these things have something in common

and it is that the threats were made in the internet and prosecution was futile in these cases. If

you are a victim of online harassment do you know what to do? Do you know what laws protect

you against online harassment? If personal pictures were leaked do you know what laws protect

you? As of currently are there are various laws that protect you but there are holes in these laws

that often make these crimes hard to prosecute. As the internet and Mass media keeps changing,

so should laws about online harassment.

Online harassment has become a more visible thing as technology and platforms for

social media keeps growing. In 2016, 72% of internet users reported witnessing online harassing,

in part because of the 2016 elections (Marshak, 504). In 2014 witnesses who reported seeing

online harassment, 25% had seen physical threats, 19% had witnessed sexual harassment, and

18% had witnessed stalking. Most women under thirty years old have been harassed online. It is

three times more likely that online harassment will escalate to attempted physical harm to young

women than to older adults. Young women age eighteen to twenty-four are targeted more in
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online harassment, 26% of young women have been stalked online as opposed to the 7% of men

aged eighteen and twenty-four and 8% of all other internet users with different ages (Marshak,

504).

Online harassment is also called cyberstalking. Cyberharassment has been defined in

various ways but it is generally defined as “the use of email, instant messaging, and derogatory

websites to bully or otherwise harass and individual or group through personal attacks”

(Seralathan, 433). The definition is very broad and can mean different things in different states,

some states define online harassment as actions that cause victims to fear for their lives, or their

personal safety, the safety of their family member, and the destruction of property.

Cyberharassment is synonymous to cyberstalking. Cyberstalking refers to “threatening,

harassing, or annoying someone in repeated encounters” online or committing multiple acts of

cyberharassment. Cyberharassment may include a one-time incident of name calling, threatening

a victim, or releasing private information (Seralathan, 434).

Online harassment may threaten, coerce, and intimidate a person and it creates in the

victim a sense of fear, terror, intimidation and a real belief of danger. Victims can experience

anxiety, a loss of personal safety, a loss of personal safety, defamation of their character, damage

to their professional reputation, alienation from their community, difficulty in legal proceedings,

depression, panic attacks and other psychological problems (Seralathan, 437).

There are laws in place that protect people from harassment yet in the era of internet there

are not many laws that protect people against online harassment. When there are laws in place,

they are often not helpful and the terms are very broad and therefore difficult to prosecute. Given

the prevalence of sexual harassment, the use of internet around the world, and the challenges one
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faces when dealing with cyberharassment, it is important that specific laws are made to deal with

cyberharassment. Sexual harassment laws should include laws that address cybercrimes too.

While there are no set terms as to what online harassment is, it differs through state and

so do the laws, it is hard to prosecute and because online harassment can happen in different

districts and there are little resources in the police agencies to fight this type of crime (Sweeney).

In states with specific cyberstalking and online harassment laws like California, Illinois, and

Massachusetts, victims can press criminal charges against their online stalkers and harassers. But

for those living in a state without these laws, there are little other resources. There are a handful

of ways victims can address their attackers through the legal system, unfortunately, many of

them are costly and invasive, and because of a lack of education and precedent (cases that have

been successful), these ways don’t always offer the justice people are seeking (Sweeney). There

is not much police education about online harassment and police are encouraged to not take

online threats as serious as it takes too much time and resources to do so (Seralathan, 429). With

no set terms as what constitutes as online harassment, it is difficult to educate the public but also

the police when they deal with threats.

The Supreme Court’s decision on the case of Elonis v. United States where Anthony

Elonis was sentenced to 44 months of prison after threatening to kill his (now ex-) wife will help

others understand how the intent to threaten a person translates online and how these cases

should be dealt with. The case is important for clarifying the beliefs around true threats and free

speech as it is often the case when with these cases are brought up that the conversation of free

speech always comes out. Does free speech have grounds when a person is threatening?

Another idea associated with free speech is that the internet is voluntary and that one

should take responsibility for the information divulged in different platforms of social media but
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while this may help with unknown preparators, it will not prevent harassment by a known

perpetrator (Geach, 244). This case will push the conversation about law enforcement and how

the lack of education and resources limit investigations, the difficulty of prosecution, and how

threats should include a much more recent understanding of the ways in which the Internet works

and how it has evolved (Sweeney).

This is a conversation that needs to be pushed both inside and outside of courtrooms. No

amount of legal updating is going to solve the problem. This is a societal issue, as much as it is a

legal one. Stalkers, harassers, and online bullies should not safely operate under the assumption

that they’ll never be caught, much less tried for their attacks, it might be time to revisit the laws,

policies, and practices that protect them.

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Cited Works

Geach, Neal and Nicola Haralambous. "Regulating Harassment: Is the Law Fit for the Social

Networking Age?" Journal of Criminal Law, vol. 73, no. 3, June 2009, pp. 241-257.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1350/jcla.2009.73.3.571.

Marshak, Emma. "Online Harassment: A Legislative Solution." Harvard Journal on Legislation,

vol. 54, no. 2, July 2017, pp. 501-531. EBSCOhost,

ezproxy.hacc.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdir

ect%3dtrue%26db%3dbth%26AN%3d123118106%26site%3dehost-

live%26scope%3dsite.

Seralathan, A. Meena. "Making the Time Fit the Crime: Clearly Defining Online Harassment

Crimes and Providing Incentives for Investigating Online Threats in the Digital

Age." Brooklyn Journal of International Law, vol. 42, no. 1, Sept. 2016, pp. 425-479.

EBSCOhost,

ezproxy.hacc.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdir

ect%3dtrue%26db%3da9h%26AN%3d123557499%26site%3dehost-

live%26scope%3dsite.

Sweeney, Marlisse Silver. “What the Law Can (and Can't) Do About Online Harassment.” The

Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 12 Nov. 2014,

www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/11/what-the-law-can-and-cant-do-about-

online-harassment/382638/.