The Ottawa Catholic School Board supports the government of Canada’s plans to enact legislation to deal with issues of cyber bullying and agrees that Bill C-13 would bring the Criminal Code up to date in students’ best interest, according to Peter Atkinson, the board's superintendent of continuing and community education, and safe and accepting schools.
The board, which serves Immaculata Catholic High School and other Catholic schools in the Ottawa area, faces the growing problem of cyber bullying among high school students, and in particular what students describe as “sexting” – the sending or receiving of explicit photographs, videos or messages, electronically.
“We do respect the fact that the government is taking very seriously the issue of cyber bullying,” says Atkinson.
Justice Minister Peter MacKay introduced Bill C-13, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, during national Bullying Awareness Week Nov. 20, as the federal government’s latest effort to further criminalize cyber bullying.
However, according to Dr. David Smith, University of Ottawa expert on victimization among children and the social causes of bullying, the new bill only addresses a small fraction of cyber bullying issues.
“This is not a solution to cyber bullying and it shouldn’t be portrayed that way,” he says. “The laws that we currently have, do not cover the kinds of activity C-13 addresses, so the proposed bill would only act to fill an important gap in legislation to address a 21st-century problem.”
Smith says this new law would only touch a tiny proportion of cyber bullying cases, those that involve online exploitation. “It’s certainly not going to be effective in dealing with cyber bullying in general,” he says.
According to the Ottawa Police Service website, criminal offences linked to “sexting” include the possession, sharing and accessing of child pornography, as well as luring, voyeurism and threatening associated with the sexual exploitation.
Smith says that although the bill is too narrow in its scope, it is a step in the right direction.
“When these images are being passed around, their primary purpose is to humiliate and bully young people. Bill C-13 would be a useful tool for law enforcement to be able to deal with these kinds of incidents,” he says.
If passed, the bill would prohibit the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and impose a prison term of up to five years. It would also give law enforcement the power to seize computers, phones and other electronic devices that could provide further evidence in investigating the cyber conflict.
Atkinson explains that a key foundation to student achievement is having a sense of well-being within the school community, which is why he advocates the mandate of ‘Safe, Inclusive and Accepting Schools’.
“If students don’t feel safe, included, and fully accepted, they can’t reach their full potential,” says Atkinson. “It’s not a program as much as it is a component of what we do as a school board.”