Cyberharassment: Striking a Balance between Free Speech and Privacy.

According to Sarah Jameson’s article written about a young girl who was intentionally harassed and had subsequently killed herself, there are no known laws that protect individuals from Cyber-harassment and prohibit certain types of profile fraud entirely. The real problem here seems to lie between anonymity and freedom of speech. Although several States try to clearly define “Cyber-harassing or Cyber-bullying”, this type of harassment will not be effective until there is some type of federal statute that defines this type of harassment. It seems as though there are too many ways in which to manipulate a law or statute by splitting hairs, in my opinion the term “harassment” as defined in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harassment) is more than efficient and there should be no tolerance for it in any form.

Jameson, Sarah (2008) Cyberharassment: Striking a Balance between Free Speech and Privacy.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCOhost. Retrieved April 11, 2009 from http://web.ebscohost.com.dml.regis.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=109&sid=4d501a85-4197-47ee-bf71-c8de8ba3204d%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=36508343