317 Queen St

1. 317 Queen St www.macarthurlegal.org.au

2. Who we are… Macarthur Legal Centre was previously known as Campbelltown Community Legal Centre and was established in 1987 and is part of a national coalition of Community Legal Centres and is committed to social justice and defending human rights Community Legal Centres are funded by the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department www.macarthurlegal.org.au

3. We Provide… • A range of services, both legal and specialist to the Macarthur Community • Free legal advice to all community members who live in the Campbelltown, Wollondilly and Camden regions • Organise legal training and legal education seminars • Educational material about the law www.macarthurlegal.org.au

4. MLC Legal Practice Free legal advice to all community members who live in the Macarthur area ….. i.e.: Campbelltown, Wollondilly and Camden regions www.macarthurlegal.org.au

5. What will you learn today? • What is Bullying? • What is Bullying Behaviour? • What is Cyber Bullying? • What are some examples of Cyber Bullying? • The Legal Process and Implications of Bullying www.macarthurlegal.org.au

6. What is Bullying? • The definition of Bullying is when another person, or group of people, behaves in a way that is cruel or hurtful to you. • This includes someone being physically violent, making threats or harassing you. • Harassment means ongoing verbal or physical attacks against you. • Bullying can happen in the playground, in the toilets, going to and from school or in the classroom. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

7. What is Bullying Behaviour? • Bullying includes things like; • Teasing i.e. calling you names nasty comments about your race, your sex or your sexuality; • Unwanted touching or kissing; • Excluding you from groups or activities; • Violent and Physical acts i.e. Pushing or Hitting you; • Verbal Threats and Obscene gestures that creates fear in an individual; • Suggesting you to do silly or dangerous things; • Damaging, hiding or breaking your things; • Belittling your abilities and achievements; • Writing mean and spiteful notes or graffiti about you or others. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

8. How you might feel? • There can be terrible effects on those who experience bullying. • Being bullied can lower your self-esteem and you may feel alone, sad, angry and scared. • If you are being bullied, it is not your fault and there is nothing wrong with you. • Don’t be afraid to let someone know that you are being bullied as they may be able to help you. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

9. Terrible Text www.macarthurlegal.org.au

10. What is Cyber Bullying? • Cyber Bullying is intentional and repeated cruel or hurtful behaviour that is carried out over SMS, email, blogs, chat rooms e.g. MSN, discussion boards, instant messaging, or social networking pages (such as Facebook and My Space). • There are four major components to this definition; • The act must be aggressive; • Intentional; • Repetitive; • With a power imbalance. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

11. What are some examples of Cyber Bullying? • Cyber Bullying includes things like; • Sending cruel and threatening messages or material; • Creating fake profiles that are mean or hurtful; • Sending unwanted messages online, teasing and making fun of others. • An important example of Cyber Bullying is placing embarrassing or compromising photographs of people on the web. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

12. Cyber Bullying: Broken Friendship www.macarthurlegal.org.au

13. What can be done to stop this behaviour? • Let Someone Know- tell an adult (parent or teacher) you trust or contact a support service such as Kids Help Line or NetAlert; • Report it to the Police- if you are receiving threatening messages and feel in danger, you should call 000 and report it to the police; • Don’t Retaliate or Reply- this can lead to flame war and only encourages further bullying; • Block or Report the Bully- learn how to block or report aggressive users (most website offer this service); Tom Wood’s blog explains how to do this for different sites (My Space, Facebook, Bebo etc.); www.macarthurlegal.org.au

14. What can be done to stop this behaviour? • Protect your Private Information- only give your mobile phone number, email address and website details to people you can trust • Save the Evidence- learn how to keep records of offending online conversations, messages and images; • Change your Details- sometimes its best to start again; create new accounts for all your online communications and request a new mobile phone number from your service provider; once you are sorted, keep it secret! www.macarthurlegal.org.au

15. The Legal Process & Implications of Bullying • Legal Frameworks regarding bullying are diverse. There is no single national anti-bullying statute and no definitive nationally acceptable legal characterisation of what constitutes bullying. • Legal response to bullying have essentially taken three forms; • Action taken by the state; who in turn act on behalf of victims and the community in addressing appalling abuse; www.macarthurlegal.org.au

16. The Legal Process & Implications of Bullying 2. Action taken by victims; e.g. suing the perpetrators of bullying in order to stop the particular offence, gain compensation for suffering and send a signal to potential offenders; 3. The third response is articulation of Industry codes, best practice statements or statements of principle; e.g. The Anti-Bullying Policy that your school has in place. This policy is an important mechanism for ensuring that your school is aware of bullying and that it is considered as unacceptable. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

17. The Legal Process & Implication of Bullying • Bullying is not OK and you don’t have to put up with it. You have the right to feel safe. Your school has to make sure that students are not bullied or harassed and that it is a safe place for you to be. • If telling people is not enough to stop the bully’s behaviour, you can make a formal complaint to the school. Ask your parents or someone you trust to help make the complaint if you need to. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

18. The Legal Process & Implications of Bullying • Criminal Law • It encompasses offences such as:- • Theft; • Assault (including threats and physical contact); • Unauthorised confinement; • Destruction of property. • The most commonly relied upon crime that is relevant to bullying is the crime of assault; www.macarthurlegal.org.au

19. The Legal Process & Implications of Bullying • The increased number of Statutes directed at Stalking and Harassment has widened the reach of Criminal Law in this regard. • If someone has been physically or sexually violent towards you, or threatened to be physically or sexually violent towards you, or has damaged or stolen your things, you can tell the police. These behaviours are against the law and if the bully is over 10 years of age, they could be charged or given a warning by the police. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

20. Technology • Criminal Code Act 1995 • 474.17Using A Carriage Service to Menace, Harass or Cause Offence • A person is guilty of an offence if: • The person uses a carriage service; and • the person does so in a way (whether by the method of use or the contact of a communication or both) that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, menacing, harassing or offensive. • Penalty: Imprisonment for 3 years www.macarthurlegal.org.au

21. Technology • 474.19 Using A Carriage Service For Child Pornography Material • A Person is guilty of an offence if: • The person: (i)  uses a carriage service to access material; or (ii)  uses a carriage service to cause material to be transmitted to the person; or                            (iii)  uses a carriage service to transmit material; or       (iv)  uses a carriage service to make material available; or (v)  uses a carriage service to publish or otherwise distribute material; and      (b)  the material is child pornography material. Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years www.macarthurlegal.org.au

22. Technology CRIMES ACT 1900 - SECT 91H Production, dissemination or possession of child pornography 91H Production, dissemination or possession of child pornography (1) Definitions In this section: "child pornography" means material that depicts or describes (or appears to depict or describe), in a manner that would in all the circumstances cause offence to reasonable persons, a person who is (or appears to be) a child: (a) engaged in sexual activity, or (b) in a sexual context, or (c) as the victim of torture, cruelty or physical abuse (whether or not in a sexual context). www.macarthurlegal.org.au

23. The Legal Process & Implication Bullying Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) Another way of dealing with Bullying www.macarthurlegal.org.au

24. Examples of Prosecutions • In Canada, on 26 March 2002, a 16 year old girl was found guilty of uttering threats and criminal harassment following the suicide of one of her classmates two years previously. The judges comments indicated that the victim had been bullied repeatedly, giving her reason to fear for her life. The perpetrator was subsequently sentenced to 18 months probation, following a ‘sentencing circle’ involving the victims mother and the convicted girl and her family ( Joyce, 2002). www.macarthurlegal.org.au

25. Examples of Prosecution • In the matter of Cox v State of New South Wales, is a leading case on school responsibility for bullying of children by their peers in our state. • While at Woodberry Public School in 1994 and 1995, Cox was hit and chocked by an older boy (an attack recognised through compensation from Victims Compensation Tribunal). His mother reported the events – one Education Dept representative reportedly commented that “bullying builds character and that he thought it was a good thing that Ben got bullied” but the bullying continued, with perpetrator reportedly stating…. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

26. Examples of Prosecution • “it was funny how the police came to my house. And if they come again, I’ll threaten to kill you”. • The NSW Supreme Court, awarded a very substantial sum of damages in favour of the plaintiff who had suffered severe psychological injury because of bullying that had occurred in the primary school some ten years before the trial. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

27. Examples of Prosecution • In the matter of Emonson v Trustees of the Christian Brothers, an 18 year old by the name of Aaron Emonson was awarded a large sum of money by a Victorian County Court after the jury heard that he had endured three years of bullying at his former school, St Patrick's College, Ballarat. • Emonson's solicitor noted that bullying was often a daily occurrence and violent. Emonson hadbeen belted on the arm with a piece of wood in a woodwork class; there'd been another occasion where he'd been hosed down with a water hose, and had been required to remain at school for the balance of that day in saturated clothing; www.macarthurlegal.org.au

28. Examples of Prosecution • there'd been another incident where he had been choked with a length of material from carpet cord and throughout that period the parents had made various requests of the school to deal with it and the response was far less than adequate… He had not progressed well at school and as a result he ceased his schooling at the end of Year 10. • One of the alleged bullies is reported as stating that Emonson's treatment was no different to what most St Patrick's students experienced. "Everyone was doing it to everyone ... We weren't singling Aaron out." www.macarthurlegal.org.au

29. Examples of Prosecution • The court found that the school had breached its duty of care, having been recurrently alerted by Emonson's parents. Emonson sued the school for physical and mental injuries caused by the bullying. • The hearing featured an email by a St Patrick's teacher in 1998 detailing problems with bullying in the school and complaining of difficulties in addressing that abuse. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

30. Question? Do you know of anyone who has been cyber bullied? www.macarthurlegal.org.au

31. How Cyber Smart are You? • 1. A friend of yours asks whether they should enter their personal details in an online competition. You suggest: • A: It’s only a fun competition so it should be fine. • B: As long as you don’t provide your real address it’s okay. • C: It’s not a good idea to enter your personal info online. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

32. How Cyber Smart are You? • Answer: C • Keep personal details private and use an appropriate username or handle instead of your real name. If you’re unsure, don’t give out personal information when using email, chat rooms, instant messaging, filling out registration forms or personal profiles. Chances are it will be used by people your friend doesn’t know and make them a target for unwanted email and spam or other unwanted contact. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

33. How Cyber Smart are You? • 2. If a friend is being bullied online should you really speak out and take action to help them? • A: Yes. • B: No. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

34. How Cyber Smart are You? • Answer: A • Take a stand against cyber bullying. Speak out whenever you see someone harassing or bullying your friends or other people online. You’d want your friends to do the same for you. If someone is being bullied it can really help them to know that someone is on their side. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

35. How Cyber Smart are You? • 3. If you stumble across some inappropriate material you should tell your parents. • A: No. • B: Yes. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

36. How Cyber Smart are You? • Answer: B • If you don’t let your parents know they may still find out and think you found it on purpose! Open communication is a wise plan. They would prefer to know if you’ve accidentally come across offensive or inappropriate material so you can work together to deal with it. Surfing the internet should be fun, so let your parents help make it fun rather than threatening or uncomfortable. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

37. How Cyber Smart are You? • 4. A friend of yours has taken video footage of you and your other friends on their mobile phone. They want to upload it to a public video sharing site. You suggest that: • A: They should seek permission from all of the people filmed first. • B: They should only upload the really funny videos. • C: It’s okay as long as there is no embarrassing footage. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

38. How Cyber Smart are You? • Answer A • Yes. People have the right to say whether they want private images or videos posted onto public sites, so you should always ask for permission first. www.macarthurlegal.org.au

39. Links Relating to Cyber Bullying! • The Wood Verdict • Tim Wood’s blog on cyber bullying is based on first-hand experience. Check out his Complete Guide to stopping Cyber Bullying entry. • http://thewoodverdict.blogspot.com/2008/04/tom-woods-complete-guide-to-stopping.html www.macarthurlegal.org.au

40. Links Relating to Cyber Bullying! • Cybersmart • Australian Government website aimed at informing parents of young people being cyber bullied. • http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/ www.macarthurlegal.org.au

41. Links Relating to Cyber Bullying! • Kid Help Line • Kids Help Line is free, confidential and anonymous telephone and online counselling service for young people. • http://www.kidshelp.com.au/index.php www.macarthurlegal.org.au

42. Links Relating to Cyber Bullying! • STR8 Talk • Practical information on how to deal with unwanted mobile phone calls and texts- produced by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Associations (AMTA) • http://www.str8tlk.amta.org.au/ www.macarthurlegal.org.au