New act no help to bullied man

The victim felt police had put the case "into the too hard basket" when the new law should give the authorities more teeth to track down cyberbullies. Photo / Thinkstock

A Whangarei man subjected to a hate campaign on Facebook which included anti-Semitic remarks and other obscenities is disappointed the police did not act when he took what he thought was evidence to them.

But police say as the page was linked to Australia they would have to get search warrants through the US Facebook office to locate those responsible and the page was only up for a short time before the man got it shut down.

However, the 27-year-old man - who did not want to be named for fear of more harassment - said the cyber attack on July 28 made him feel "worthless, depressed, angry, frustrated and hated". He feared his professional as well as personal reputation had been damaged and managed to access the page and shut it down within a couple of hours of it being posted. It happened only weeks after the Harmful Digital Communications Bill was passed.

He felt police had put the case "into the too hard basket" when the new law should give the authorities more teeth to track down cyberbullies.

The new law, though, is yet to be enacted. It will create new criminal offences of intentionally causing harm by posting a digital communication and will make it easier for authorities to track down cyber bullies.

It sets out 10 communication principles to guide the court in assessing if a digital communication caused or is likely to cause someone harm. "Harm" is defined as "serious emotional distress".

Senior Sergeant Steve Dickson confirmed the man's complaint was not taken further. He said police assessed all cases of bullying reported to them, cyber or otherwise.

"We can understand the complainant was upset about the page. Fortunately he took some positive steps and shut it down after it was discovered," Mr Dickson said.

"Also, as the page was linked to Australia, police would have to get search warrants through the United States Facebook office to locate the person/s who set the page up. This would be time-consuming and costly and as the page had been shut down we considered it wouldn't warrant further investigation."

The man had gone to the police with an audit tracing the Facebook page to two Whangarei musicians who were asked to leave a bar he was working at earlier that night for being drunk and abusive, he said.

He showed the police "screen grabs" of "drive him out of town" slogans, insults about his work, paedophilia jokes, taunts over his Jewish heritage and offensive captions on photos of emaciated prisoners in a WWII concentration camps. The man said he had now shrugged off his experience.

"At the time, I was beside myself. I didn't know where to go for help, who to ask for advice. I felt worthless. We hear all the time about the number of teenagers and young children who suffer this kind of thing. What must it do to them?"

Chief Human Rights commissioner David Rutherford acknowledged bullying was a major human-rights issue that must be challenged but there would be some difficulty applying legal rules that required subjective interpretation.

"The [new] Act aims to strike the right balance between freedom of expression and our need as a community to challenge our bullying culture and protect people who are under attack," Mr Rutherford said.

"All of us, particularly our children, have a right to be safe."

During the last 12 months, the Commission has received 13 complaints of alleged unlawful discrimination involving cyber bullying.