At first glance, the issue of cyber-bullying seems straightforward. Online or offline, bullying is unacceptable and should be addressed firmly (“Clamp down on cyber-bullies?”; VoicesTODAY).
In practice, bullying, particularly online, is increasingly a social activity, considering especially the type of bullying disguised as vigilante justice. One person gets the ball rolling and others pile in to get their pound of flesh.
Thus, incidents increase in regularity; it is tempting to conclude that bullying is getting out of hand. Even so, I hesitate to agree that more or harsher laws, which already exist to address harassment, are the solution.
Using abusive or threatening words and behaviour on another person is an offence. Provocation of violence, such as publishing contact information and distributing tools so others can make anonymous threats, is an offence. Death threats can be reported for prosecution.
Calling for more or tougher laws seems premature when we have not exhausted existing recourses. While laws are meant to deter, if bullies are not deterred now, new laws would not deter them either. Instead, we risk creating disproportionate penalties.
A parallel example is the incident in which a student was penalised S$400 for “misuse” of a socket at an MRT station. While that was in accordance with the law, it shows what can happen when tough and overly broad laws are applied.
This should raise alarm bells if we tackle online bullying by ignoring the laws we have and making tougher ones. We must ask the hard question: What has made this behaviour more common now than before?
To blame young people, the Internet or the vocal minority is easy, but correlation is not causality. In defence of young people, I believe older adults are as guilty of being among the most abusive, threatening and law-breaking cyber-bullies.
Many comments betray a cynicism that can come only with a history of personal experience. To address this change in our national attitude, we must examine all factors that may have led to this antagonism and discontent.
We often hear tangential, almost irrelevant, arguments in these instances of vigilantism: Foreigners, cost of food or transport, home prices and other complaints — none of which explain why resorting to death threats against people who make insensitive remarks is acceptable.
To solve the problem of bullying, online and offline, we must discover the root causes and explore all avenues for resolution, rather than pen new, possibly unnecessary and probably ineffective laws.
Leadership in this new world of the Internet and social media may mean a fresh perspective to problem solving, along with a better balance between toughness and graciousness.
Dr William Wan
General Secretary
Singapore Kindness Movement
First published in TODAY – February 7, 2014