Legislative Responses
Missouri legislators amended the state's harassment law to include penalties for bullying via computers, other electronic devices, or text messages. The bill was approved on May 16, 2008. More than twenty states have enacted legislation to address bullying that occurs through electronic media. These laws include statutes that mandate that school boards must adopt policies to address cyberbullying, statutes that criminalize harassing minors online, and statutes providing for cyberbullying education. California enacted Cal. Educ. Code ยง32261 that encourages schools and other agencies to develop strategies, programs, and activities that will reduce bullying via electronic and other means.
A bill was introduced in Congress in 2009 (H.R. 1966) to set a federal standard definition for the term cyberbullying, but the proposal was criticized as overbroad and did not advance.
Read more about this topic: United States V. Lori Drew
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“Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.”
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