Regulating Harassment: Is the Law Fit for the Social Networking Age?

2009 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal Geach ◽  
Nicola Haralambous

The use of social networking websites, such as Facebook, has escalated in recent years. A consequence of this has been that these communication mediums are being increasingly used to bully and harass other users. This article explores the extent to which existing legislation provides sufficient protection against such activity. There is currently no legislation dealing specifically with online harassment. Although existing legislation, such as the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, can be interpreted so as to cover issues of harassment over the Internet, such legislation was not drafted with the Internet in mind. In light of this, the extent to which this Act can offer effective protection against online harassment can be questioned. While other statutory provisions, such as s. 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and s. 1(1) of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, do expressly take account of modern electronic mediums, both have limitations. This article evaluates the rationale behind criminalising various forms of online conduct and argues that the current overall legislative framework is inaccessible, uncertain and thus inadequate to encompass activities in today's evolving age of online social networking. Consequently, the time has come for reform to ensure that the law balances the need to protect individual well-being with the need to safeguard against fictitious and vindictive allegations.

Temida ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debarati Halder ◽  
Karuppannan Jaishankar

Web 2.01 has redefined the virtual life of ordinary individuals and has given wide opportunities to internet users including women to exchange ideas, interact with like minded people and participate in the development of virtual societies as per one's own choices. Social networking websites (SNWs), a segment of Web 2.0 is very popular among the internet users. However, there is a dark side of these SNW's too. They have become havens for offenders to victimize women, the most vulnerable targets in the internet, after children. In this paper, we examine the victimization of women in the social networking websites in general, analyze the trends of such victimization from socio - legal - victimological angle and ascertain the reasons for the growth of such victimization.


2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 2156759X0901300
Author(s):  
Sheri Bauman ◽  
Tanisha Tatum

Traffic on Web sites for young children (ages 3-12) has increased exponentially in recent years. Advocates proclaim that they are safe introductions to the Internet and online social networking and teach essential 21st-century skills. Critics note developmental concerns. In this article, we provide basic information about Web sites for young children, discuss developmental issues, and make recommendations for school counselors to be proactive and aware of the advantages and dangers inherent in these sites.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Amaral Borghi ◽  
Regina Szylit ◽  
Carolliny Rossi de Faria Ichikawa ◽  
Michelle Freire Baliza ◽  
Uyara Talmatare Jesus Camara ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: This study aimed to understand how social networking websites are used by adolescents and their importance during the hospitalization process. Method: A descriptive and qualitative study was supported by the virtual ethnographic method and resorted to the symbolic interactionism as theoretical framework. Eleven hospitalized adolescents were interviewed. Results: Three categories were identified based on the analysis of interviews and posts: Being able to use social networking websites during hospitalization; Using the Facebook® chat to keep connected to friends; Seeking support from friends through social networking websites. Final considerations: Facebook® was the social networking website that adolescents used the most, standing out as an important form of entertainment during hospitalization that facilitates communication and social support. Healthcare professionals should value the use of social networking websites by hospitalized adolescents and encourage access to these tools, providing hospital resources to expand and facilitate this access.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anh Thu Le

<p>Online Social Networking (OSN) websites have been growing fast and their success is decided by customers’ satisfaction. User satisfaction can be measured using a number of popular frameworks such as SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, SiteQual, and WebQual. These frameworks are often used as guidelines when designing, implementing, and assessing quality of websites in general and can also be used to measure the quality of online social networking websites. Besides, there are additional factors that should be taken into consideration when assessing user satisfaction such as demographic differences and cultural differences. The present research project aims to investigate and test the linkage between culture and user satisfaction on the online social networking websites. This is achieved by conducting an analysis on the basis of a survey in two different countries – New Zealand and Vietnam. The research project’s principal component analysis follows Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions and the modified framework of assessing online social networking sites quality conducted by Rizavi, Ali, and Rizavi in 2011. The results suggest that users’ quality expectation of Social Networking Sites (SNS) in New Zealand and in Vietnam may be influenced by cultural differences.</p>


Author(s):  
Stephanie Hatzifilalithis ◽  
Elisavet Chrysochoou ◽  
George Pavlidis ◽  
Ana B. Vivas

The present study examined the relation between cognitive performance and social networking in older adults from Canada and Greece. The two groups were matched on age, gender, education level, and MMSE scores. Participants reported the amount of both off-line and online networking, as well as the social support received in these contexts. Immediate and delayed recall, speed of processing, and executive functioning were also assessed. Online networking was associated with executive functioning. Interestingly, country context didn’t moderate the relationship, despite differences observed between Greeks and Canadians in executive functioning and online networking. Our findings suggest that online social participation could serve both as a source of social support and as cognitive training, benefiting older adults’ cognitive vitality. The findings are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the specific countries, stressing the need to explore the effects of online social networking and participation on cognitive function in the aging population.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoming Guan ◽  
Honxu Wei ◽  
Xingyuan He ◽  
Zhibin Ren ◽  
Xin Chen ◽  
...  

Urban forests can attract visitors by the function of well-being improvement, which can be evaluated by analyzing the big-data from the social networking services (SNS). In this study, 935 facial images of visitors to nine urban forest parks were screened and downloaded from check-in records in the SNS platform of Sina Micro-Blog at cities of Changchun, Harbin, and Shenyang in Northeast China. Images were recognized for facial expressions by FaceReaderTM to read out eight emotional expressions: neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and contempt. The number of images by women was larger than that by men. Compared to images from Changchun, those from Shenyang harbored higher neutral degree, which showed a positive relationship with the distance of forest park from downtown. In Changchun, the angry, surprised, and disgusted degrees decreased with the increase of distance of forest park from downtown, while the happy and disgusted degrees showed the same trend in Shenyang. In forest parks at city center and remote-rural areas, the neutral degree was positively correlated with the angry, surprised and contempt degrees but negatively correlated with the happy and disgusted degrees. In the sub-urban area the correlation of neutral with both surprised and disgusted degrees disappeared. Our study can be referred to by urban planning to evaluate the perceived well-being in urban forests through analyzing facial expressions of images from SNS.


2013 ◽  
pp. 1294-1314
Author(s):  
Keith A. Bauer

The social consequences of the internet are profound. Evidence of this can easily be found in the enormous body of literature discussing its impact on democracy, globalization, social networking, and education. The implications of the internet for medicine have likewise received a great deal of attention from policy makers, clinicians and technology theorists. Medical privacy, in particular, has garnered the lion’s share of attention. Nevertheless, research in this area has been lacking because it either fails to unpack the conceptual and ethical complexities of privacy or overestimates the power of technology and policy to protect our medical privacy. The aims of this chapter are twofold. The first is to provide a nuanced explication of the concept of privacy, and, second, to argue that e-medicine and the policies supposedly designed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal health information fail to do so and in some instances make their violations easier to commit.


2012 ◽  
pp. 911-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam M. Bossler ◽  
Thomas J. Holt

The development of computers, cell phones, and the Internet allows individuals to connect with one another with ease in a variety of ways in near real time. The beneficial impact of these resources, however, has been adulterated by some to engage in abusive communications while online. Specifically, individuals now use email, text messaging, and social networking sites to spread hurtful or malicious information about others. This entry summarizes the problem of online abuse via cyberbullying, online harassment, and stalking by discussing the prevalence of these phenomena as well as the prospective predictors of victimization.


2012 ◽  
pp. 537-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Ross ◽  
Ross Slovensky

The development of the Internet affords new opportunities for organizations as they add talent to their workforce. Employers are using third-party job placement websites (e.g., Monster.com), virtual job fairs, social networking websites, and even massively multiplayer online games such as Second Life to recruit job candidates. Organizations are also using their own websites to both attract and to evaluate new applicants. Accompanying these trends is the use of Internet-based testing for evaluating job candidates. Such testing varies based on whether it is proctored or unproctored and whether it incorporates dynamic computer adaptive testing. Finally, many firms are using individual candidate’s social networking websites (e.g., Facebook) as a background screening tool for evaluating job candidates. These trends are described and research questions identified.


Author(s):  
Keith A. Bauer

The social consequences of the internet are profound. Evidence of this can easily be found in the enormous body of literature discussing its impact on democracy, globalization, social networking, and education. The implications of the internet for medicine have likewise received a great deal of attention from policy makers, clinicians and technology theorists. Medical privacy, in particular, has garnered the lion’s share of attention. Nevertheless, research in this area has been lacking because it either fails to unpack the conceptual and ethical complexities of privacy or overestimates the power of technology and policy to protect our medical privacy. The aims of this chapter are twofold. The first is to provide a nuanced explication of the concept of privacy, and, second, to argue that e-medicine and the policies supposedly designed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal health information fail to do so and in some instances make their violations easier to commit.


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