Cyber Bullying Could Lead to Criminal Charges

Wednesday, 2 September 2015 07:37

Bullies can be far more vicious when hiding behind a keyboard, but they could be facing very real consequences.

OXFORD COUNTY - Bullying has been a part of school for decades, but now kids have more access to each other than ever before through social media.

For the victims it can feel relentless - they are teased on the playground and taunted through Twitter. Community Services Officer with the Woodstock Police Constable Nikki VanLeeuwan says if teachers or school staff notice a particularly troubling case they can reach out to Community Options for Justice for help. "What they do if there's a huge issue where there's kind of a ring of kids that are bullying and harassing we bring that service in and they'll do what's called a justice circle. And basically that gives every student and their parents an opportunity to share how the bullying has affected them personally. So it's an excellent way for people to have a voice and to have some closure to an incident."

Constable VanLeeuwan says these sessions have proven to be effective in the past. "Once you confront people face to face, they really don't want to be hurting one another. And they need to know the criminal consequences as well so once a person is age 12 they are criminally responsible for their actions. So cyber bullying, criminal harassment - students could be charged at age 12 and have a criminal record."

Although these issues tend to get more focus as the kids go back to school, children aren't the only victims. Adults often find themselves dealing with cyber bullying as well. Constable VanLeeuwan says most of the time communication is key in those cases as well. "Basically the investigation would go something like this: if we got a call that someone was harassing someone over Facebook or other social media we would speak to the people and try to stop the problem by warning people and educating them. So most of the time that is effective and people will stop the communications and stop harassing one another." When even that fails those criminal harassment charges can be laid for bullies who refuse to desist.