Internet pests, self-obsessed, righteous keyboard warriors with penchants for pulverising feelings and potentially no social lives to speak of but who are grossly empowered by the all-consuming satisfaction that trolling brings to their petty existence will potentially by threatened by an amendment to a Commonwealth law; a new ruling that aims to quell the genuinely harmful effects and genuinely complete nuisance of cyber bullying and those that practice in the fine art of Trolling.
While it could most definitely be argued that, for now and forever more, Trollers Gonna Troll, a report from news.com.au today announces a step closer to bringing a difficult, unruly but incredibly pertinent social issue in Australia to light and attempting to combat its impact with attention it so deserves. News.com.au today reports that the Coalition Government is attempting to make cyber bullying an offence, and demystifying the complex definition of the term and its associated complexities in prosecution.
The laws, according to news.com.au and the Courier Mail, will see prosecuted child cyber bullies facing community service time, counselling and/or being forced to apologise to their victim IRL. The report also alleges that adult cyber bullies, hereby known as Trolls, could face jail time if they “deface online tribute pages”; there is, however no mention on the special place in Hell carved out for those who simply embellish youtube videos, fairfax articles and celebrity re-tweets with the searing, effective abuse mechanism of “no”, or “die” a masterful trolling tactic that should surely see as much reprimand as those righteous enough to carefully word out essays on your vaguely political, vaguely sensationalist status update.
In all seriousness, the laws that may be implemented in Australia soon could be a significant and empowering step forward in the Government realising the paradoxical reality that the Internet now holds in our daily lives. Much like the epidemic of our online shopping addictions that apparently need to be scrutinised and taxed appropriately, so too do the slander and bullying laws need to be adjusted to compensate for the online landscape.
Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek told the Courier Mail, “(We will) examine the need for a new, simplified cyber-bullying offence which will include a broad range of sentencing options where the offender is a minor, such as counselling, restorative justice, community-based orders and probation.” A noble pursuit, certainly; however as the boundaries of the internet are inherently murky and its cloak of anonymity frustratingly easy to don, it will be interesting to see how the laws will be implemented, considering a similar cyber bullying bill in Canada faced criticism after citing problems with accountability measures and reporting mechanisms, making it difficult to implement the laws successfully.
Hopefully, however, the laws will pass and be implemented effectively to help fight the fire of cyber bullying, especially among children, where the link between its damage and youth suicide are becoming a growing concern. Trolls may trollolol but they don’t always have to win.
Via news.com.au
Title image by Christophe Simon via Getty.
