126th Morrison Congress

2nd Session

H.R. 126-054

Title of the Bill: Cyberbullying Act

Main Author(s): Rep. Edward Chou (D-FL) and Rep. Liberty Hsiung (D-MD)

Co-Sponsor(s):

BE IT ENACTED BY THE MORRISON CONGRESS

1 SECTION 1: Findings
2 Congress makes the following findings:
3 1) Until recently, no laws specifically addressed cyberbullying (1)
4 2) Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in
5 about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among
6 young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of
7 high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have
8 attempted it.(2)
9 3) More than 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyber threats online. (3)
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11 SECTION 2: Purpose
12 To prevent online bullying by imposing a punishment specifically for cyberbullying.
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14 SECTION 3: General Provisions
15 Currently, there is no law that addresses cyber bullying specifically. With the
16 increasing victims of cyberbullying to of the population, it is necessary to
17 impose a law that restricts cyberbullying specifically. If someone reports to the
18 police that they have been cyberbullied and provides the police with sufficient
19 evidences. Then the police can file for a warrant to search the bullys account.
20 This bills also states that accounts are a part of a persons property, therefore
21 can be searched with a warrant. Any evidences obtained in the search with a
22 warrant can be used against the bully. The punishment of cyberbullying can vary
23 from a 3 months prison time to a lifetime depended on the degree of bullying.
24 This law also states that social media companies must cooperate with the police
25 in the investigation with a warrant.
26 Without a law that restricts cyberbullying, it is hard to prevent cyberbullying. If there
27 is no definite punishment, then the statistics on cyberbullying will only increase.
28 In order to seek a safer environment for people to be, there ought to be laws
restricting cyberbullying. The statistic of people have gotten cyberbullied
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before, shows that this is a problem that cannot be waited on anymore.
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SECTION 4: Definitions
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Cyberbullying: the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by
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sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature .
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Works Cited:
1) http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/cyber-bullying.html
2) https://www.statista.com/topics/1809/cyber-bullying/
3) http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html