Level: Grades 7 and 8
Duration: Two hours

Overview

In this lesson, students learn about and discuss the legal aspects of cyberbullying. They review a variety of hypothetical scenarios and a case study, and they consider the seriousness of the situations, who is legally responsible, what action (if any) should be taken and by whom. To determine this, students will seek answers to the following questions: How does cyberbullying differ from offline bullying? What aspects of a cyberbullying case make it a cause for legal action? What determines whether it is a civil or a criminal matter? How should rights to freedom of expression, guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, be balanced against rights to security of person? When and how are schools responsible for cyberbullying cases?

Students will also be introduced to two main sources of information on criminal law: the online Criminal Code and the Canada Gazette. The latter publishes laws as well as regulations and proposed regulations that are to be introduced or amended, allowing citizens to participate in the legislative system by commenting on the proposed changes.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• analyze scenarios and case studies, and make judgments on them
• consider and discuss factors that affect whether online actions are, in fact, cyberbullying
• demonstrate knowledge of legal terms and definitions related to cyberbullying
• demonstrate knowledge of responsible citizenship and ethical behaviour online
• argue and support an opinion

Preparation and Materials

• Read the following backgrounders for teachers:
  • Cyberbullying — Rights and Responsibilities
• Photocopy the following handouts:
  • Cyberbullying Scenarios
  • Cyberbullying Case Study
  • Selections From the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Cyberbullying and the Law Fact Sheet

Procedure

Distribute the Cyberbullying Scenarios handout. Ask students to quickly read each hypothetical scenario and rank each one from 1 to 5, where:

1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate

2 = Possibly wrong, but no action needs to be taken

3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action

4 = Wrong, and civil action could be taken by the target or the target’s parents

5 = Wrong, and criminal charges should be pressed

Class Discussion

Read through each of the scenarios with students and ask how they ranked each one. Some will likely have obvious and unanimous rankings (i.e. the negative review of the band is a 1), but most will involve some debate. Ask students to explain what makes some scenarios more or less acceptable than others, especially those that are closely related (2, 4, 5 and 13, for instance, or 8 and 10).

For several scenarios, the answer will probably be “it depends.” This is good: push the class to consider what the answer depends on, to bring out further aspects of the issue.

Major issues that should come out of this discussion are:

• Anonymity – does it make the perpetrator more or less responsible?
• Defamation – how can someone hurt another person’s reputation? Is doing that the same thing as hurting them physically?
• Harassment – what does it involve?
• Is it wrong to say bad things about a person? If so, is it just morally wrong, or can it be legally wrong as well? In what situations might it be acceptable?
• Does it make a difference if bad things are said in private or in public? Why?
• What control should a person have over images of herself or himself? Is it different if the person in the image created it herself or himself, or not? Does someone lose control over an image after it has been uploaded?
• What control should a person have over emails or other messages he or she sends? What about material posted in a public forum, like Facebook?
• Is it worse to harass or defame a teacher or a peer? Why?

Distribute the handout Selections From the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Review and discuss these selections with students. As you do so, move the discussion from the specific examples in the Cyberbullying Scenarios handout to the broader question of the conflict between the right to freedom of expression (Section 2 of the Charter) and the right to security of the person (Section 7).

Use the following questions to focus the discussion:

• Right to freedom of expression – What limits on this right can be “justified in a free and democratic society”? (Sections 1 and 2 of the Charter.)
• Right to security of the person – Does this include protection from damage to a person’s reputation? Does it protect people from fear as well as from actual harm? (Section 7.)
• What duty do schools and teachers have to prevent and act on cyberbullying? How does this relate to Section 7 of the Charter?

Case Study Exercise

Distribute the handout Cyberbullying Case Study, and review it with the class. Divide the class into six groups and assign each group to a role as follows:

• Perpetrator
• Target
• Parents of target
• Bystanders (people who know the target and saw the Web site)
• Teacher of perpetrator and target
• Police

Ask each group to analyze the case from their assigned point of view, considering the issues that came up in the class discussion and that were covered in the Cyberbullying and the Law Fact Sheet. Give each group an additional question to consider:

• Scott: How can you defend your actions?
• Colin: Was what you did cyberbullying as well? If so, how can you accuse Scott? If not, why not?
• Colin’s parents: What should school and civil authorities do about this case? Why?
• Other members of Scott’s Facebook group: What can you do, and should you have done, in this case? Why?
• Teacher: What can you do, and should you have done, in this case? Why?
• Police: Should criminal charges be laid in this case? If so, which ones and why? If not, prepare an explanation of why not for the target’s parents.

After each group has shared its analysis, ask the class to find a consensus on how the case should be handled.

Final Activity

Have each group develop a school policy against cyberbullying.

Instruct students to consider the following questions while they are developing the policy:

• How can students’ right to freedom of expression be balanced with the school’s duty to provide an environment that is free from bullying?
• What definition of cyberbullying should be provided to students through the school policy? Can the definition help to balance the students’ rights?
• What issues are most important in a school environment?
• What forms of discipline are appropriate for cyberbullying cases?
• Which decisions should be left to the discretion of the teacher and principal, and which should be required in all cases (for instance, should teachers be required to report all cyberbullying incidents to the police)?