The state Court of Appeals’ decision to strike down Albany County’s cyberbullying law shouldn’t deter county legislators from coming up with a new one. All they need to do is refine the focus of the law.
At its heart, the county’s cyberbullying law had the right intent by addressing online bullying. The law was meant to put a stop to people using social media to make threats against or denigrate others and went so far as to make it a criminal offense.
The flaw that the Court of Appeals saw in the county’s law was the broadness of the language. The law prohibited the bullying of “any minor or person,” which the justices saw as restricting free speech. By definition, anyone could be called a cyberbully if he or she posted a statement online that others took offense to. For instance, if an adult posted a statement on Facebook that could be described as racist, that person could have been prosecuted as a criminal in Albany County and forced to pay a fine up to $1,000 and serve up to one year in prison.
Now we may not agree with what that person said, but in the United States we have an amendment to our Constitution protecting free speech. That means even though the statement would clearly go against popular opinion, it’s still allowed to be said – even on the Internet. It’s up to us how we react to it.
Allowing derogatory statements to be made against a child, though, is an entirely different matter. As a community, one of our prime directives is to provide a safe environment for our children to grow up in. That goal has become far more difficult in recent years, as children are increasingly finding themselves in dangerous situations. All anyone has to do is look at the number of violent attacks in schools since 1999 to see how quickly an institution we once thought of as a safe haven has been threatened.
Cyberbullying may not be violent in nature, but it is psychologically damaging to the children targeted by comments that are intimidating, threatening, humiliating or embarrassing. And since these comments are often made anonymously, it makes it harder for children to feel safe when they walk through the halls of their schools or on the streets of their neighborhoods. If they don’t know who made the comments, they can assume anyone did.
Some may see this as a double standard. Why should we stifle anybody’s right to free speech, even if it’s directed against a child? To this, we say think about if this happened to your child. How would you feel if your child was threatened or embarrassed by something posted on the Internet? Wouldn’t you want those responsible for making the comments to be held accountable for their actions?
As for now, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said he and the legislature are going back to the drawing board to come up with a new cyberbullying law – one that focuses on protecting children.
“Sometimes you don’t get it right out of the gate, but someone had to do it,” McCoy said. And for that, we commend county lawmakers for making that effort. Hopefully, they’ll draft a new law that is constitutional and effective.