Who is Responsible
for preventing cyber-bullying: The Schools or the Internet Providers?
School’s
Responsibility:
Parents
have argued that schools should be held responsible
for the protection of their children from online bullies. However, as cyber-bullying
generally takes
place outside of the walls of the school and after school hours,
schools have
argued that it is not their responsibility to monitor the students. Also, schools worry about
infringing on
students’ rights to freedom of speech.(30)
As of now, the
legal boundaries
regarding the protection of students and their privacy online is still
in
contention.(31)
Schools
have the added difficulty of not always knowing who
to punish. Considering
that
cyber-bullies have the ability to hide behind their online names and
email
addresses—and that hundreds of students can be involved in
the bullying of one
individual—it can be difficult to pinpoint who the original
perpetrators
are.
Schools,
it has been argued, do have a responsibility to
educate students about how to behave online.
Educators play a valuable role in teaching
students how to conduct
themselves within the world of technology. It is up to schools to
produce codes
of conduct concerning internet and cell phone use, as well as outlining
proper
behavior in online relationships.(32)
Internet
Providers’
Responsibility:
To
date internet providers have not been helpful in stopping
cyber-bullying. They
are too worried
about infringing on peoples’ rights to freedom of speech. Therefore, they are
generally unwilling to
shut down websites or to block emails.(33)
“ISPs
[internet service providers] are not censors, they are
not morality police, and we don’t think Canadians want their
ISP to be making
determinations as to what is appropriate content for them or their
families to
view. …that is a decision to make in their own homes based
on their own value
system and their own interests.”
—Jay
Thompson, the now former-president of the Canadian
Association of Internet Providers during an interview with CBC in
2005.(34)
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In
the 2002 case of David Knight—a Canadian student who had
a cruel webpage called "Welcome to the page that makes fun of David
Knight" created about him that accused him of being a
pedophile—it took
his parents months of calling Yahoo to get them to remove the site from
the
web. It was only
removed after Knight’s
parents threatened legal action.(35)
As
of now, there are few
regulations governing material that is posted online.(36)
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