Posted: September 7th, 2024

The Protect Bill

The Protect Bill

Prevent Report Overcome and Thwart Electronic and Cyberbullying Threats (PROTECT Act)
In the House of Representatives/Senate
Date: _____________
(Your name here) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on ___________________________.
____________________
A BILL
Prevent Report Overcome and Thwart Electronic and Cyberbullying Threats (PROTECT Act)
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 2 in Congress assembled.”
SECTION I
1. Short Title
This Act may be cited as the PROTECT Act.
2. Definition of terms
In this Act, unless stipulated otherwise herein;
“Child users” means a user of an electronic media platform below the age of 18 years or a high school student.
“Cyberbullying” – means the conduct and verbal threats through any form of electronic media is known or alias name with the intention to demean or destroy the character of an electronic media user.
“Denial of Service” – means an attack on the electronic computer systems of an organization or person with the intention to hinder access to such computer systems.
“electronic media” – means an electronic platform that uses internet services for communication.
“Harassment” – means harassment within the meaning of the Dignity for All Students Act.
“Organization” – means an organization incorporated under the laws of the United States of America.
“Pseudonymization” means creating a personal identifier on an electronic media that cannot be deduced without extrinsic information to identify the person from the known personal identifier or address data.
“Service provider” – means any person who is the proprietor of electronic media.
“Users” – means all persons who avail to themselves electronic media platforms for communication purposes.
3. Objectives and Purposes of this Act
This Act aims to
i. Make further provisions on existing cyber laws.
ii. Prevent acts of harassment on electronic media
iii. Prescribe for offenses arising from electronic media harassment and attacks
iv. Grant powers to all States to punish offenders as per the Act.
4. Application
This Act is subject to:
i. All persons that offer electronic media platforms
ii. All users of electronic media platforms
iii. Even though they are not users of electronic media platforms, all persons who disseminate data or facilitate in the commission of an offense under this Act or cause to be published such information on an electronic media to harass or attack a user device used for electronic media.
iv. All governmental agencies involved in the investigation of cybercrimes, including but not limited to; –
a. The National Security Agency
b. The Federal Bureau of Investigations
c. The United States Department of Justice
d. The Department of Homeland Security
Provided that these organizations exercise their duties in coordination with and consultation of State governments and relevant State-level departments within the United States.
SECTION II: DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS
5. Duties of Service providers
All service providers shall; –
i. Endeavor to maintain systems to protect their platforms from denial-of-service attacks
ii. Create user policies that prohibit and ban the use of their platforms for harassment and attacks on users
iii. Consistently review their systems with the intention to fix bugs that expose users and their data to denial-of-service attacks.
iv. Create effective mechanisms for users to report incidences of online harassment and attack or data leakage without consent
v. Undertake to sustain a mechanism to screen abusive users and cyberbullies
vi. Make biannual reports to the Congressional committees concerned with information technology on their activities towards addressing cyberbullying.
vii. Liaise with relevant authorities listed under section 4 (iv) of this Act to address cyberbullying and denial of service attacks
viii. Create systems that regularly advise users of their platforms on attempted attacks on their data
ix. Offer assistance to users on psychological actions available in the event of harassment or bullying on their electronic media platforms
x. Create systems to protect child users
xi. Ensure that all users, including aliases, are natural or legal persons and not robots in so far as cyberbullying is concerned
6. (1) All users and child users of electronic platforms incorporated in the United States so long as they are within the jurisdiction of the United States shall not;-

i. Use their electronic media platforms to harass or attack other users on the platform or a non-user
ii. Conduct denial of service attacks on other users’ devices, including the service providers
iii. Use their electronic media platforms to harass or attack a child or child users on the platform.
iv. Allow third parties to access or use their electronic media profiles for purposes of harassment, bullying, threatening, attacking, conducting denial of service attacks, or any other act within the meaning of cyberbullying.
v. Promote, disseminate, publicize or tout on their profiles such contents retrieved from another electronic media platform or user where such contents reasonably appeal to hate, harassment, bullying, threatening, attacking, conducting denial of service attacks, or any other act within the meaning of cyberbullying (Foody, Samara, El Asam, Morsi, & Khattab, 2017).
(2) Provided that nothing in section 6(1) of this Act limits the reasonable exercise of the freedom of speech of any user within the United States and in accordance with the Constitution of the United States.
(3) A court of law in determining whether the duties of a user under section 6(1) conflict with the freedom of speech shall pay regard to;-
i. The limitations of freedom of speech under the laws of the United States, federal laws, and state laws
ii. The place of the issue including the nature of the user the recipient of which the harassment, bullying, or attacking was directed to
7. All governmental authorities under section 4(iv) shall; –
(1) Provide support to service providers in tracking, finding, investigating, and prosecuting users culpable of cyberbullying
(2) Provide technical support to service providers through cybercrime investigation skills, denial of service attack protection, and prevention
(3) Create industrywide standards of practice for service providers in developing user policies that enhance protection from cyberbullying, harassment, attack and or threats
(4) Any other function necessary to issue maximum effect and meaning to the provisions of this Act
8. (1) It shall be the duty of both the service providers and parents or guardians to ensure that child users are protected from harmful data, including harassment and bullying on an electronic media platform.
(2) Provided that parents and guardians shall have a prima facie duty to bring to the service provider’s attention that a given person is a child user.
(3) The burden of proof to show that a given user is not identifiable as a child user on an electronic media platform shall be on the service provider.
SECTION III: INTERVENTIONS FOR THE PROMOTION OF CYBER PROTECTION
9. (1) All governments shall endeavor to promote users’ protection from cyberbullying, harassment, or attack.
(2) to promote cyberbullying protection, the federal government through relevant agencies shall seek to afford service providers;-
i. Such incentives including tax incentives on costs of running cyberbullying protection units
ii. Such funds as may be necessary to conduct staff training on cybercrime investigations
iii. Such skilled personnel as may be deemed fit and fully paid for by the government as residents within the offices of the service providers to facilitate cyberbullying and crimes units
iv. Any other form of support deemed necessary by the Cabinet secretary in charge of information technology through the President’s Office or any other law.
(3) State governments shall ensure that school children are continuously informed on cyber harassment and bullying risks when using electronic media platforms. This shall include running website pages with live support from government psychologists for victims of cyber harassment (Hudson Jr, 2020).
(4) Local governments shall be mandated to ensure that schools have a curriculum on the risks and the threats of using electronic media in the form of cyber harassment and bullying.
SECTION IV: MISCELLANEOUS
10. Offenses of breach of duties
(1) A service provider, who fails to create user policy agreements that prohibit cyberbullying, harassment, threat, or attack shall be guilty of an offense.
(2) Any service provider that fails to report to the relevant Congressional committee as required under section 5(vi) commits an offense.
(3) Failure by a service provider to create systematic policies and mechanisms to protect child users amounts to an offense under this Act.
(4) A service provider who fails to offer support after cyber harassment on their platform, including investigating the perpetrators of the activities of harassment, bullying, threatening, or denial of service attacks, is guilty of an offense.
(5) Any user or child user who uses their profile to bully, harass, threaten, or attack another user or person is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(6) Where the acts of a user or child user who uses an electronic media platform to threaten another user or person with physical harm causing the victim to harm themselves, such persons shall be guilty of an aggravated misdemeanor.
(7) Third parties and an owner of a profile used on an electronic media platform to bully, harass, and threaten other users or persons shall be liable for the violation.
11. Penalties
(1) State governments shall have jurisdiction to prescribe appropriate punishment for offenses outlined under section 10 of this Act.
(2) Provided that in the absence of such a legislative instrument, a violation of section 10 shall result in a penalty not exceeding five thousand dollars and or imprisonment not exceeding two years.
(3) Being an incorporated person, any person shall be exempted from imprisonment and consequently substituted with a fine of a similar amount as the court may deem fit.
12. Adoption by State legislatures
State legislatures shall undertake to adopt the provisions of this Act in their laws for their respective States wholesomely or with necessary modification so long as the adopted legislation does not conflict with this Act.
SECTION V: Commencement
13. This bill will take effect upon assent by the President of the United States across the United States.

References

Hudson Jr, D. L. (2020). Essay: Cyberbullying and Freedom of Speech.

McCosker, A. (2016). Managing Cyberbullying. Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture, 21.

Foody, M., Samara, M., El Asam, A., Morsi, H., & Khattab, A. (2017). A review of cyberbullying legislation in Qatar: Considerations for policy makers and educators. International journal of law and psychiatry, 50, 45-51.

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