(Revised) Cyberbullying and Law
In a modern world, social media is essential to staying connected with one's broader school community. While this may be true, there have been several instances in which social media has been used to target and harm people both physically and emotionally. In an effort to prevent such occurrences, parents have suggested that teachers monitor their students' accounts to prevent such harm. This may seem like an immediate solution; however, the legal implications of such actions may cause it to do more harm than good. So how should the cyberbullying epidemic be addressed? To answer this question, both the legal and ethical implications of doing so must be explored. Leaving out either would make an argument incomplete.
Cyberbullying is a form of online bullying that intends to be demeaning or insulting in nature. This often involves posting photos or screenshots that could potentially ruin a person’s social reputation. Data collected by the Cyberbullying Research Center in May of 2025 provides a numerical insight into cyberbullying 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. In turn, 33% of those people 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% of the students had also reported having cyberbullied someone else in their lifetime. Of those who had reported having cyberbullied someone, 16% of the participants admitted to having cyberbullied someone in the 30 days leading up to the survey. The most common methods used by those who cyberbullied 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 one's physical appearance”.
Before jumping to conclusions, it is important to note that a large amount of bias coils stem from the fact that the survey pool was very small. With only 3,466 teenagers having participated in the survey, and an approximate total of 26,038,160 teens in America in 2024, this data must be looked at with some ‘leniency’. Further, nearly 75% of those kids 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.
But how does cyberbullying fit into law? 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. A good attorney, if defending a person accused of bullying, may argue that the harm was insufficient to have caused any real harm and that the issue was that the person being bullied took it too seriously.
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 Mass. General Law, bullying contains cyberbullying.
The legal article went on to say bullying is prohibited on any grounds relating to school. This included, but is not limited to: any 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. Meaning the problem won't be solved if accounts are monitored, as it requires teachers to commit a crime. If police can not openly access personal data, teachers should not have any access to data either.
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
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