Ethical and Legal Issues Raised by the Amanda Cyberbullying case.

Ethical and Legal Issues Raised by the Amanda Cyberbullying case.

Introduction

Bullying refers to a constant intentional act undertaken by the perpetrator who has power over the casualty. Bullying causes both the emotional and physical harm on the victim. Bullying can occur in many forms; cyberbullying is amongst the significant bullying cases in current society. Cyberbullying occurs through digital devices such as computers, cell phones, and tablets via the internet. Teena is the most vulnerable group to cyberbullying. One of the significant issues triggered by the cyberbullying is the perpetrator anonymity. The anonymity offered by social media platforms such as Facebook gives the participants the authority to write anything they wish without any fear of the repercussion.  Amanda Todd is an excellent example of the cases of cyberbullying.

Ethical and Legal Issues Raised by the Amanda Cyberbullying case.

Amanda Todd (12 years old) was conversing with her friends through online platforms, one of her friends asked her to send the photos of her bare breasts. The perpetrator took the video and screenshots of her breasts and then shared it through online platforms. This made Amanda Todd encounter humiliation from her friends and classmates who started to identify her as “pornstar”. The humiliation was extreme to the extent that Amanda Todd decides to commit suicide. However, her first suicide attempt was never taken serious her fellow teens; instead, they made jokes of her case (Hamm, 2015).    Amanda succeeded on her second suicide attempt; her death attracted massive attention from the online witchhunt and the police officials who conducted extensive investigations to identify the perpetrator. In the end, the online set succeeded in identifying the perpetrator; they published his address and name on the online platforms. However, the Amanda “Jokes” on her case persisted in the online platforms.

Various ethical issues are surrounding the Amanda case. One of the moral issue raised by her case is sexual exploitation; she received sexual exploitation at a tender age. Also, Amanda needed more anonymity and privacy in her activities. Online platforms exploited her privacy rights by exposing her naked breasts (Walrave & Heirman, 2016). The other ethical issue derived from the Amanda case is the jokes and taunts that spread through social media after she committed suicide. It is immoral to make jokes to a person’s death; people should have shown some empathy in her case. One of the legal issues in the Amanda case is the injustice contributed by anonymity established found in the online platforms. This calls for the establishment of new laws to curb the anonymity in social media to mitigate the cyberbullying of people.

Whether or not the perpetrator in Amanda Case should be held accountable.

Yes, the perpetrator in the Amanda Case should be held accountable for the death of the Amanda Todd. Though Amanda shared with him her naked breasts, he was not supposed to spread the photos through social media. He violated her privacy by spreading her bare breasts throughout the internet. This caused humiliation on Amanda, which in turn lead to her suicide. Hence he should be held accountable for her death.

Amanda case was a wrongful death

I view Amanda suicide as a wrongful death despite that his death was triggered through online platforms. Wrongful death refers to the death of a victim that emanates from the defendant’s intentional act or negligence (Farrall, 2015). Amanda’s death resulted from the deliberate act of the perpetrator of sharing her naked breasts through social media. Hence her death was a wrongful death despite that it was triggered through online platforms.

I have witnessed various cases of cyberbullying amongst my friends. However, I have never been a victim of the cyberbullying.

Ethical norms that should regulate person conduct in the internet

Moral norms can be regarded as the homogenous ways of the behaviours and conducts. Respect for other peoples is the chief ethical norm that I employ while using online platforms (Loeb, 2016).  I respect other people’s online privacy.

Policy to mitigate the cyberbullying cases

I would propose the introduction of an online ethical curriculum to educate the students how to treat others in the online platforms and how to respond to the critics they face from other people in the online. This is an effective policy since it is hard to discourage people from using online platforms. The best strategy is to educate the students in the school how to employ ethical norms in the online. This would, in turn, lower the cases of cyberbullying and the deaths of teens from cyberbullying.

References

Farrall, J. (2015). ” I Have No One; I Need Someone”: Contextualizing Amanda Todd Within the” My Secrets” Video Genre (Doctoral dissertation).

Hamm, M. P., Newton, A. S., Chisholm, A., Shulhan, J., Milne, A., Sundar, P., … & Hartling, L. (2015). Prevalence and effect of cyberbullying on children and young people: A scoping review of social media studies. JAMA paediatrics, 169(8), 770-777.

Loeb, D. (2016). ETHICAL NORMS, PARTICULAR CASES. Philosophical Review, 111(1), 127–129. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-111-1-127

Walrave, M., & Heirman, W. (2016). Cyberbullying: Predicting Victimisation and Perpetration. Children & Society, 25(1), 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2009.00260.x

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