By Emma Jolliff
Cyber-bullying is set to become illegal under changes proposed by the Law Commission.
It says Britain had such laws 20 years ago, and New Zealand has been slow to catch up.
A tribunal would have powers to identify anonymous bullies and force people to remove offensive material from the internet.
Students from Tawa Intermediate, who were making a submission at Parliament on improving digital learning, say cyber-bullying is more pervasive than being bullied in person.
"When people get bullied at school they go home and they go on the internet and they get bullied more, so they can never escape," says Lachlan Patterson.
But it's not just a school problem. Netsafe receives 75 complaints about bullying a month, half of those from adults.
The Law Commission is recommending a new offence under the Summary Offences Act.
"You're required to show it was grossly offensive, not just a bit annoying, that the person intended to hurt or must have known it would," says former law commissioner John Burrows.
Mr Burrows says bullying examples the commission has seen would make your hair stand on end.
"People being threatened, accompanied by mutilated dead bodies… a young woman being violated and pictures being spread around, forcing her to leave the school."
The commission also wants an agency, in this case Netsafe, to be given statutory powers and funding to resolve bullying complaints; a new communications tribunal, where a judge can order offensive posts to be taken down and reveal the identity of anonymous offenders; legal requirements for schools to help combat bullying; and for it to be a crime to encourage suicide.
"There is a law about inciting suicide now, but it's only a crime if the person does the suicide or attempts to," says Mr Burrows. "We think that's a bit late."
The Government will determine penalties, but the commission says some similar offences carry penalties of three months in prison.
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