«Kill yourself (...) You're so ugly.». Does France have the means to protect its young people from cyberbullying?
By Clément Diakonoff, 18 June 2020
Lockdown has exacerbated the artistic creativity of some and increased the violence of a phenomenon that has found particular resonance during the epidemic.
As UNESCO has pointed out, «the COVID-19 crisis has forced nearly 1.3 billion children and young people around the world out of schools and universities, sending them home as part of measures to slow the pandemic. These pupils and students may be safer from the virus at home, but they are more exposed to other risks such as violence, including cyberbullying (...)».»2.
A bill «aimed at combating hateful content on the internet», adopted on 13 May 20203 (but which is the result of a year of parliamentary work that began well before the emergence of COVID-19), provides an opportunity to ask the following question: is France capable of dealing with the rise in cyberbullying? This requires us first to seek to identify the contours of the concept itself.
Cyberbullying does not have a single, fixed form for sociologists.
For lawyers, on the other hand, it is a more precise concept.
For sociologists, «cyberbullying can take many different forms. It can be direct or indirect.»4. Thus, the repeated sending of violent messages (« harassment »), the public dissemination of intimate information (« outing »), spreading rumours are all forms that cyberbullying can take.
For the lawyer, the dissemination of sexually explicit content without the consent of a person appearing in it (or « revenge pornography ») and harassing someone online with repeated comments intended to or resulting in a deterioration of their living conditions are two behaviours that constitute different offences.5.
While cyberbullying is already a punishable offence, the adoption of a proposed law demonstrates the government's desire to provide additional protection and enforcement measures in light of the challenges in this area.
