The North Dakota legislature is attempting to regulate cyber-bullying this session.

Several examples of school students being punished for conduct carried out over the internet have hit the news in recent months.  Normally this conduct comes in the form of written harassment of other students or teachers.  Currently North Dakota’s 62^nd legislative assembly is attempting to determine the best way of regulating cyber-bullying.  The following is a brief description of the four pieces of pending “cyber-bullying” legislation currently being considered by the legislature:

House Bill 1147 – (http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/documents/11-0412-01000.pdf) was introduced by Grand Forks representatives to regulate cyber bullying within the North Dakota school system.  For the purposes of this section "bullying" would be redefined to mean any physical act, verbal utterance, or written or electronic communication that is directed toward a student and which: a) causes the student to fear harm to the student's person or property; b) has a detrimental effect on the student's physical or mental health; c) interferes substantially with the student's academic performance; or d) interferes substantially with the student's ability to participate in or benefit from services, activities, or privileges provided by a school district. 

House Bill 1250 (http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/documents/11-0494-01000.pdf) would require each school district to enact a policy to prohibit bullying by any student … While using any electronic or technological device provided or supported in whole or in part by the school district … and the conditions under which the school district must notify law enforcement.  This is the only of the bills which contemplates the location from which the internet is accessed; this may be an important consideration because the state’s interest in preventing harassment on school computers is higher than its interest in regulating the conduct of students in their own homes.  On the other hand it is pointless to regulate cyber-bulling based solely on the physical location from which the bullying is conducted because the vast majority of the conduct which the state is here attempting to prevent occurs in the relative privacy of their own homes, or even over cellular telephones; both presumptively outside of the reach of this bill.

House Bill 1465 (http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/documents/11-8212-01000.pdf) would require that not later than June 30, 2012, each school district shall adopt a policy prohibiting bullying at school and including bullying over the internet. This is the only one of the three House Bills here mentioned that specifically limits its proposed regulation to K-12 public schools, in contrast the above mentioned bills might be applied to state higher education institutions because they do not specifically limit themselves to K-12 schools. 

Senate Bill 2167 (http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/documents/11-0210-01000.pdf) would amend a number of North Dakota criminal statutes to include acts conducted over the internet.  This includes an amendment to the meaning of written communication within the Criminal Defamation statute to include “a writing that is communicated electronically by or through the use of the internet, electronic mail, electronic messaging, or other similar means.”  Harassment, Stalking, and Disorderly conduct would be similarly amended to include electronic communication over the internet.  All of these would include written statements, photos, audio, video, and data files communicated over the internet through email, blogging, websites, and social networking sites.  Additionally, a new statutory section would require the state superintendent of public instruction to research and create a model anti-bullying plan which would then be made available to school districts within the state and all state non-public schools.  The proposed statute explicitly includes “cyber-bullying and on-line safety” and would create a North Dakota Commission on bullying to investigate cyber-bullying and determine if the laws of the state are adequate for the prevention of cyber-bullying and the punishment of perpetrators.