Know Your Rights on Cyberbullying

By Ashley Morris and Jessica Moore

As a recent spate of teen suicides so sadly proves, American teens are locked in a bullying crisis. Do you know your legal rights if you’re being bullied?

In a state with a strong law against bullying, such as Massachusetts, bullying includes, “acts or threats conducted by any device that transfers signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system.” This means cyberbullying is a crime and is punishable by fines and imprisonment.  Bullypolice.org offers a full explanation of each state’s laws on bullying and indicates whether each state considers cyberbullying communication a criminal offense.

The National Crime Prevention Council notes that teens believe cyberbullies find their actions funny, don’t think their bullying is a big deal, and don’t worry about the consequences. With cyberbullying at the root of a spate of teen suicides, teens need to know that these points are disastrously false.

Cyberbullying: What you need to know

• If someone is cyberbullying you on a social network or website, you have the right to report them. Wiredsafety.org provides a cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and harassment  report form to help stop online bullying.

• Find out about your school’s legal authority.  It can be difficult for schools to discipline bullying that occurs off school grounds. StopCyberbullying.org suggests working to see if a provision can be added to your school’s policies if there are strict on-campus discipline laws.

• Get familiar with IP addresses. An IP address is a number that identifies a computer on the internet and can be used to locate and prove an individual is bullying you. For more information on IP tracking, go to StopCyberbullying.org.

• Saving evidence of your bully’s online threats is important; Internet Service Providers often discard online information that could incriminate an online perpetrator (such as online chat communication).

What you can do to delete cyberbullying

The National Crime Prevention Council offers these guidelines for preventing cyberbullying:

• Refuse to pass along cyberbullying messages
• Tell friends to stop cyberbullying
• Block communication with cyberbullies
• Report cyberbullying to a trusted adult

In August, New York passed a new anti-bullying law, the Dignity for All Students Act, which will help the state move toward a school environment free of discrimination and bullying. This is a big step for New York, but there are still states that have little or no legal authority against bullying (Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota).  Every effort makes a difference, so make sure you write to your state and local senators to push for anti-bullying laws in these states.

Do your part to prevent bullying before this crisis becomes even more widespread.

Ellen Addresses Teen Bullying Tragedies

Please watch Ellen’s important message on teen bullying – and then pass it someone else.

Watch video here.

Important resources on bullying are listed here. Additional resources also are available on Ellen’s website.

LGBT Seminar Workshop: The Network La Red

By Teen Voices editorial intern Michelle Golden

Here at Teen Voices, we offer a mentoring and journalism program for teens in the Boston area. I am lucky to have had the opportunity this past semester to work on a Special Features article concerning issues gay teens face, with my two amazing mentees, Ashley and Danaysha. To learn more about the topic, we researched and read about the different problems gay teens face.

While on my way to a meeting at Emerson College a few weeks ago, I came across a sign that advertised a seminar/workshop on the campus with The Network La Red, an organization that addresses partner abuse in lesbian, bisexual women, and transgender relationships. The network offers confidential and bilingual services for lesbians, transgender people and bisexual women. Although at first we hadn’t considered partner abuse a problem with gay teens, we thought this would be an excellent chance to learn more about the issue and present our findings to teen girls all over the world. The conclusion we came to was that partner abuse happens to many people, regardless of whether they are gay, straight, transgender, bisexual, queer, or questioning.

The Network La Red aims to get the word out to the community that partner abuse is a community issue. The organization was formed when a group of lesbians who had been in abusive situations came together to discuss domestic violence. Now, in 2010, The Network La Red is a national educational resource for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who have encountered partner abuse. The group is a community-based multicultural organization where women who have experienced abuse now hold leadership roles. The network seeks to create new traditions where control and domination are no longer acceptable between two partners.

During the workshop, we were asked to think of all the words that describe our sexual orientation. Gay. Straight. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Questioning. Those were just a few of the names participants mentioned. Each time an attendee said a word, the presenters gave us its actual definition. We also learned about what constitutes a healthy relationship — emotionally, physically, culturally, and financially. The presenters led a discussion of the different effects of partner abuse, and we talked about what to do if you – or someone you know – is experiencing abuse.

What should you do if you are experiencing partner abuse?

• Confide in someone you feel comfortable speaking to about the problem.

• Speak with a professional at The Network La Red or a similar organization. The Network La Red hotline number is 617-742-4911.

For more information:

http://www.thenetworklared.org