Harassment Laws Need to Be Revamped

Harassment laws vary from state to state. Not all of them protect victims from harassment effectively.

Bullying is a form of harassment. When we talk about harassment, we are talking about it illegal behavior. Harassment is a legal term and it is defined through the laws prohibiting stalking.

While every state has a stalking law that defines harassment, not every state defines harassment in such a way that would include cyber-harassment/stalking. It turns out that some states required direct contact between victim and harasser in order for it to be harassment.

This means that someone could post things online about you. They can threaten you, lie about you, post your phone number on a sex board to encourage other people to call you and harass you and none of this would be considered harassment or stalking in certain states because they did not contact you directly.

I live in Florida. In my state these behaviors would be considered illegal. But in some states, it would not. This issue is so important; I am including the text of an op-ed that appeared on Al Jazeera America by Danielle Citron, professor of law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/expand-harassment-laws-to-protect-victims-of-online-abuse.html