NY senator introduces law against cyber-bullying

Some 30 U.S. states already have laws dealing with online harassment. At least five states have laws dealing explicitly with cyber-bullying.

A New York State senator has introduced a cyber-bullying bill, saying outdated harassment laws fail to punish bullies who use the Internet and smartphones to torment others.

The bill presented by Jeffrey Klein is a response to several highly publicized cases of teen suicides following some form of online bullying.

Klein argued that current state law had not kept pace with technology as life increasingly moved online.

"If people know there is a tough law on the books and they’re going to be punished, they are going to act accordingly," he told a news conference on Monday.

Some 30 U.S. states already have laws dealing with online harassment. At least five states have laws dealing explicitly with cyber-bullying.

Under Klein’s bill, the crime of stalking in the third degree would be updated to explicitly include harassing a child using electronic communication.

The bill also removes requirements that the offender initiate the contact and that the victim be a direct recipient of the communication.

Although it is already a crime to intentionally cause or aid another person's suicide, the bill would update the state’s second-degree manslaughter statute to explicitly include cyber-bullying as a possible cause of a suicide.

Democratic Senator Diane Savino, a co-sponsor of the bill, said that although bullying has existed “since Cain and Abel,” it has been transformed by the Internet and smartphone technology.

Anne Isaacs, whose daughter Jamie, now 15, had to switch schools because of bullies, said online bullying was also much harder to escape than other forms.

“When Jamie would go online to do her homework she would go online and be screaming because messages would come up,” said Isaacs, who joined Klein at the press conference.

An attempt to legislate against cyber-bullying at the federal level foundered in 2008, and it has been left to the states to decide how to deal with the problem.