Criminalizing Cyber Bullying Could Ruin More Lives Than It'll Save

There's a lot to be happy about in a newly released survey [PDF] from MTV and the Associated Press about trends in "digital abuse" among young Americans. Cyber bullying among people aged 14-24 appears to have declined since 2011. While that's arguably great news, the most important finding in the survey is actually this: When respondents were asked how often they considered the possibility that what they say online or via text message could get them "in trouble with the police," 69 percent of respondents said they'd considered the possibility "only a little" or "never." Seventy-one percent of respondents had given little or no thought to the possibility that their wireless interactions could get them in trouble at school.

Those findings are especially troubling in light of the recent suicide of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick and the subsequent arrest of two of her alleged bullies, ages 12 and 14, in Lakeland, Florida. The two girls stand accused of harassing Sedwick online and in text messages so brutally that it prompted Sedwick to climb to the top of an abandoned building and jump to her death. The Polk County Sheriff's Department charged them with felony aggravated stalking after one of them posted on Facebook that she'd bullied Sedwick, knew that she had died, but didn't really care. Based on the poll results above, the question we have to ask is if Sedwick's alleged tormenters, who surely knew that they were being awful, also knew that what they were saying online could have criminal consequences IRL. To put it more bluntly, should a 14-year-old and 12-year-old be criminally punished for doing something that was clearly terrible but not clearly criminal?