Sen. Silverstein Bullies the Bullies
(Springfield, IL) — Last week, State Senator Ira Silverstein (D–Chicago) bullied the bullies. Cyberbullies.
On March 12, Sen. Silverstein won approval of Senate Bill 2426 from a Senate panel to zap teen “cyberbullying” via the Internet, text messages, and e-mail. The legislation targets iHarassment, iTormenting or iTerrorizing a specific person at least twice, including posting Web site smackdowns.
The cyberbullies would be yanked from their gizzmos for up to one year in the slammer for a first offense. Yikes. Repeat iPests would be staring at 1-3 years in the pokey. Double Yikes.
Silverstein said that a poll conducted by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids showed that more than 13 million children aged 6-17 have been the victims of “cyberbullying” at one point or another.
The Senate Judiciary-Criminal Law Committee unanimously passed the bill, 8-0. Now the legislation faces all the genteel members of the Illinois State Senate.
iTrash-talk may soon get more painful.
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This is great news. I am glad there is anti-bullying legislation out there. There is workplace bullying legislation being proposed in states too. My best friend killed herself after being bullied by her supervisor–bullying hardly begins to describe it–and it isn’t against the law to do that to co-workers or fellow employees. Workplace bullying gets pummelled by businesses. I wonder if MySpace et al will fight the cyberbully bill. We all know what bullying is, but people will say the definitions are too subjective. They aren’t.
Dear 1dumblonde,
I agree.
David Ormsby