A news article published in The Age (15/06/12) by Melissa Laria raises the dangers of bullying and cyberbullying and the desperate need to enforce new effective national laws to battle the issue. As technology advances, so do bullying techniques, the ability for this behaviour to carry on off school grounds, outside hours and even across borders has become very easy and instant, meaning it has gotten way ahead of the law. Although there are current laws against traditional bullying which do hold schools responsible, allowing them to intervene, there has been talk of proposals in regards to an upgrade. However, a main factor to the bullying problem is the lack of awareness that schools and parents have. It has been suggested that the news laws should hold parents and schools accountable the child or children’s behaviour. This would mean that parents and schools would face penalties if they fail to monitor the child or children’s behaviour, the state governments are yet to determine whether they agree that this additional measurement is necessary.
The study shown in the academic journal analyses relevant experimental studies and provides a clearer explanation of the characteristics behind cyberbullying. As previously mentioned, there are current laws that do apply to both traditional and cyberbullying, the academic journal article shows a direct connection to this. It outlines the process of how and why they came to be and provides examples of past findings that support the claims made in the news article. The academic journal article looks at the extant case law and legislation that clearly state that school administrators and law enforcement are in in fact allowed to intervene in cyberbullying incidents, Stewart and Fritsch (2011) “In short, courts