Cyberbullying and Law

Should workplaces and schools monitor student social media accounts?

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In a modern world social media is essential to staying connected with one's broader school community, however there have been instances in which social media has been used to cause harm. In an effort to avoid harm, many have wondered if social media accounts of students should be monitored to avoid forms of harm. To answer this question both the legal and ethical implications of doing so must be explored. Leaving out either would make an argument incomplete.

The actual concern of unmonitored students on social media stems from the concern of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a form of online bullying that intends to be demeaning or treating in nature. Data collected by the Cyberbullying Research Center in May of 2025 provides insight on what cyberbullying currently looks like in the United States. From a research sample of 3,466 American students ages 13-17, 58% of them had claimed to be cyberbullied in their lifetimes and 33% had reported having been cyberbullied in the 30 days leading up to the survey. Of those who had been bullied in the past 30 days, the most common forms of bullying were: “being excluded from a text or group chat”, “mean or hurtful comments posted online”, “being embarrassed or humiliated online”, and “rumors spread online”. Around 25% (24.5% to be exact) of the students had also reported having cyberbullied someone else in their lifetime,  16.1% admitted to having cyberbullied someone in the 30 days leading up to the survey. The most common actions done by those who cyberbullied in the 30 days leading up the the survey were “intentionally excluded someone from a group text or chat”, “had posted mean or hurtful comments about someone online or embarrassed or humiliated someone online”, and “had posted mean names or comments about ones physical appearance”.

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While these percentages may seem large, remember that this is from a sample of 3,466 kids, ages 13-17. In America there are 26,038,160 people in America ages 12-17 as of 2024 and nearly 75% of those kids (excluding those who are 12) have an active social media page. That means about 0.01% of the entire youth population was used to obtain the cyberbullying data, thus this data may not represent the overall youth of America.

From a legal standpoint, as covered in my hate speech blog, the first amendment protects free speech as long as it does not cause any harm to others. From a very generalized and simplified viewpoint, if the bullying is not causing serious emotional distress or physical harm, it can not be criminalized.

To prevent bulllying to be viewed as legalized, many US states have made laws around bullying and how it may be criminalized. Massachusetts outlines its rules and definitions for bullying in its state law Massachusetts General Law (MGL). MGL c.71 § 370, defines bullying as “physical or emotional harm or damage to the victim's property;” and further defines cyberbullying as “bullying through the use of technology;”. In the context of MGL, bullying contains cyberbullying. The laws went on to say bullying is prohibited on any grounds relating to school. This included, but is not limited to the area near the school, school affiliated events, school grounds and areas and events not affiliated with one's school. The law also states that schools must make a “plan” that addresses what bullying is and the steps they plan to take to prevent it in their school. These must obviously adhere to state and federal laws. Further, as explained in my access to personal data blog, police can not access online data that is not made readily public without a warrant. If police can not openly access personal data, teachers should not have any access to data either.

From an ethical standpoint, teachers restricting what students do is not good for students, and will not do much.By stopping online forms of bullying, bullying will not stop but continue in other forms such as physical. While stronger restrictions have been put for physical violence in school in the past years, bullying will continue regardless. Bullying will never stop, all schools can do is lessen it, but can never truly end it.

Patchin, J. W. & Hinduja, S. 2025 Cyberbullying Data. Cyberbullying Research Center. https://cyberbullying.org/2025-cyberbullying-data

“Social Media and Teens."American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2023, https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Social-Media-and-Teens-100.aspx

“Child population by age group in United States.”The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Sept 2025, https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/101-child-population-by-age-group?loc=1&loct=1#detailed/1/any/false/1096/64,6/419,420

MSG Part I Title XII Chapter 71 § 370