What Should the Punishment Be for Acts of Cyber Bullying?

This article is written by Katherine Schulten from the New York Times, talking about the situation with cyber bullying and different views people have on cyber bullying 

This is the question an article in the Week in Review asks about the Tyler Clementi case. “Just how culpable is an online bully in someone’s decision to end a life?” the article asks. Do you know about this case, and the Phoebe Prince caseearlier this year? How tough should the punishment be for those who cyberbullied these students? Why? How do you think incidents like these could be prevented in the first place?In “Bullying, Suicide, Punishment,” John Schwartz discusses the complexities of the case and concludes:

Finding the right level of prosecution, then, can be a challenge. On the one hand, he said, “it’s college — everybody is playing pranks on everybody else.” On the other, “invading somebody’s privacy can inflict such great distress that invasions of privacy should be punished, and punished significantly.”

There is also the question of society’s role. Students are encouraged by Facebook and Twitter to put their every thought and moment online, and as they sacrifice their own privacy to the altar of connectedness, they worry less about the privacy of others.

Teenagers “think that because they can do it, that makes it right,” said Nancy E. Willard, a lawyer and founder of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use.

Impulsiveness, immaturity and immense publishing power can be a dangerous mix, she said. “With increased power to do things comes increased responsibility to make sure that what you’re doing is O.K.,” she said.

…That is why Daniel J. Solove, author of “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet,” said society needed to work on education.

“We teach people a lot of the consequences” of things like unsafe driving, he said, “but not that what we do online could have serious consequences.”

Students: Tell us what you think about how punishment in this case and others like it should be handled. How much is the bully to blame, and how much responsibility should he or she bear for the consequences? Why? How do you think cyberbullying like this can be prevented in the first place? Do you think education, as Mr. Solove suggests above, is enough?