Cyberbullying should be a criminal offence in the EU
Your phone lights up and your stomach twists. The small screen you used to love is lasering hate straight at you. Fake intimate images mock you. Spiteful words cut you. Threats are made. Disappearing direct messages, full of menace, pile in.
With the added fuel of shares and likes, of trolling, fraping, catfishing and upskirting – yes, each torture has its own label – the bullies have got you just where they want you. They’re in your phone, in your pocket, in your head and in our online world, there’s no escape.
We call all this brutal persecution cyberbullying. We are wrong. It isn’t bullying, it’s full-on violence and it’s experienced by around half of young people in the EU.
A Swansea University study revealed that young victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm and enact suicidal behaviour. Photo: Shutterstock.comA Swansea University study revealed that young victims of cyberbullying are “more than twice as likely to self-harm and enact suicidal behaviour”, a clinical way of saying that cyber-violence causes young people who should be full of hope and happiness to cut themselves and kill themselves.
Nicole Fox, from Dublin, affectionately known as ‘Coco’, was one of these young people and her mother, Jackie, rose up on behalf of us all to campaign for the protection of our children and young people. The result, the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 was enacted in Ireland in February 2021.
Coco’s Law, as it is known, complements existing Irish legislation that prohibits the distribution of sexually explicit content involving individuals under 18 years of age.
It creates new offences directly relevant to what young people are experiencing. It specifies hefty fines and considerable terms of imprisonment. But, most of all, it shows that we, who have the power to help, understand what cyberbullying feels like and will do all in our power to protect those in our care.
Since becoming law, the Irish police have initiated over 70 prosecutions related to intimate image abuse alone and other EU countries have also been active. In 2017, the Italian parliament approved legislation against cyberbullying and, last year, the French parliament criminalised school and university bullying, including cyberbullying, with offenders sanctioned with a fine of up to €150,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years.
But piecemeal sanctions are not enough. Without addressing cyberbullying comprehensively across every EU member state, our response looks feeble. The social media platforms across which bullying takes place are strong. Only a pan-EU response can demonstrate that the EU’s resolve is stronger.
Can we afford to wait? Ask Jackie Fox, who has lost her daughter. Ask any parents whose children have suffered torments. And, next time you see a young person, look at their phone and flinch, ask yourself: “Did we in the EU do enough to protect all our young people from cyber-violence?”
At the moment, the answer is no. It doesn’t have to be. Beat the bullies. Let’s do it now.
DAVID CASA MEP (EPP), FRANCES FITZGERALD MEP (EPP) – Brussels, Belgium
Another outstanding success
On April 29, the highly acclaimed ‘Gaulitana: A Festival of Music’ resumed its live opera repertoire with Giuseppe Verdi’s best-loved opera La Traviata. Indeed, this was another outstanding success for Gaulitana, particularly its indefatigable artistic director and concert organiser, Maestro Colin Attard.
Undoubtedly, Colin, as he is affectionately known, has been one of the key musical composers in the impressive revitalisation of concert activity, including opera productions, in Gozo in the last four decades.
In front of a full house at the Aurora Opera Theatre, this successful production practically brought to an end a month-long, aptly named ‘A Festival of Music’ by Gaulitana.
La Traviata boasted of a highly impressive cast led by soprano Ekaterina Bakanova, playing the key role of Violetta, and tenor Francesco Meli, as her lover, Alfredo. Piero Terranova played Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father. The line-up also included other international artists regularly performing in leading opera houses together with local singers Alan Sciberras and Louis Andrew Cassar.
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Gaulitanus Choir, directed by its founder, Maestro Attard, also contributed to a unique and memorable evening.
CHARLES DEGUARA – Kalkara