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It doesn’t matter if it’s online or offline, abuse is abuse and those people abusing need stopped. Using your voice to hurt is not right. Its’ the same as taking a gun out and shooting someone. It needs to be stopped and prosecuted.

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Male, 56  USA

 

                                                                                                                                                            

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We as humans should be able to exist together without abuse, we are the highest form of life on the planet but we exhibit the worst feelings to one another, the animal kingdom is better at compassion than we are.

 

Male, 57 USA

 

                                                                                                                                                            

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Online bullying is out their for all to read and see and you cannot deal with it right there right now. Many, many people are using this as an excuse to viciously abuse others

 

Female. 51 Australia

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It is cruel, intimidating and not acceptable. You should never use Freedom of Speech as a reason to abuse individuals. It needs to be stringently monitored and action taken.

 

Female. 58 UK

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Both online and face to face can be as devastating and dangerous! Having seen a group called ‘Britain First’ who put people's lives at risk by spreading hatred and their contact details online on Facebook it proves I am right that freedom of speech must have consequences and deterrents to make people think before ruining other people's lives to any degree. It needs places like Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc to take more responsibility for not allowing abuse and hate speech to happen. Such media systems need better policing as does the whole internet, trying to get places like Facebook to do something useful to hand over such things to the authorities is impossible, and, shouldn't be down to the common user of such media systems to hand over reports to the authorities, it should be the system itself as well as employees handing over all details to relevant authorities whether it be for cyber bullying or child abuse etc. Closing an account only makes the perpetrator hide who and where they are better next time.

 

Female, 56 Netherlands

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Online abuse is harder to fight back / get over. One needs to be held to account for actions and words. Needs to be better education around the consequences of cyber abuse, and the realities of harm it can cause. It needs higher prosecution in earlier stages, and not waiting until someone dies.

 

Male, 57 UK

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The law has to get tighter to tackle it, probably starting with domains and websites knowing more about their owners/users.

 

Female, 53 Scotland

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The law has to get tighter to tackle it, probably starting with domains and websites knowing more about their owners/users.

 

Female, 55 Scotland

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Freedom of speech and freedom to abuse are very different. Abuse is a crime and cyber abuse is a crime and needs to be addressed as such. Those doing it are criminals and need to be treated as such.

 

Female, 51 Australia

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Everyone is always talking about 'freedom of this' and 'freedom of that' but everyone seems to forget that freedom requires us to be responsible for our actions. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "None of us can ever be 100% free, because our freedom is compromised by the freedom we respect in others." A member of my family (child aged 9) was being bullied at school and then the tormentor turned to cyber- bullying. The bully set up a false Facebook profile on behalf of my relative, with images, status updates etc. When I discovered this, I reported it to Facebook and they responded very quickly and thoroughly. They shut down access to Facebook for the entire family of the bully (who was a minor) for a number of weeks. I was very pleased that Facebook had taken such quick action and had made a REAL WORLD punishment from an online infraction.

 

Female, 55 UK

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Freedom of speech is about being able to question authority and state/discuss opinions & ideas, not about attacking others. We need to understand that online abuse is real and can have devastating effects. We need to start taking it seriously.

 

Female, 57 UK

 

                                                                                                                                                            

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I don’t see freedom of speech as being freedom to attack, lie about or ridicule people or their opinions.

 

Female, 51 UK

 

                                                                                                                                                            

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Freedom of speech is not the freedom to victimize someone - which is a form of emotional violence. People should be made more aware of their options to deal with it under the law.

 

Male, 59 UK