Cyberharassment, violations of privacy, cybercrime, actual violence

Provisions on cyberbullying and stalking

17th of May 2017 the Italian Parliament has approved unanimously a long-awaited legislation to address cyberbullying. This law no. 71/2017, entitled “Regulation for the safeguarding of minors and the prevention and tackling of cyberbullying”, passed after some tragic cases of cyberbullying and violence against women in which victims have committed suicide.

Article 1 of the law provides a specific legal definition of cyberbullying for the first time in Italy, defining it as “whatever form of psychological pressure, aggression, harassment, blackmail, injury, insult, denigration, defamation, identity theft, alteration, illicit acquisition, manipulation, unlawful processing of personal data of minors and/or dissemination made through electronic means, including the distribution of online content depicting also one or more components of the minor’s family whose intentional and predominant purpose is to isolate a minor or a group of minors by putting into effect a serious abuse, a malicious attack or a widespread and organized ridicule.”

The law provides a strong empowerment of minors stating at Article 2 that underage victims that are at least 14 years old or their parents can now contact directly the data controller or the website or social media provider in order to present a request for blocking, remove or taking down every other personal data of the victim, after that the original data have been preserved. The request must expressly include the URLs where the content is reachable. The recipient of the request must reply after 24 hours that he takes the obligation of blocking, removing or taking down the content and after 48 hours from the request the obligation must be fulfilled.

In case the request is not fulfilled or it is impossible to determine the owner of the website or of the social media, it is possible to lodge a circumstantial claim or a report to the Italian Data Protection Authority that will proceed in the following 48 hours according to articles 143 (Handling a Claim) and 144(Reports) of the Italian Data Protection Code.

An important role is given to the prevention at school to counter cyberbullying. According to the Article 3 of the law, the Italian Ministry of Education and University will be the leader of an institutional forum composed by experts and interested stakeholders for discussing the issue of fighting cyberbullying and monitoring the effective implementation and enforcement of the law. The aim of this forum is to develop a comprehensive plan to combat and prevent cyberbullying with different initiatives like, for example, the drafting of a code of conduct for service and network providers and informative events for parents and teachers.

Finally, every school must designate a teacher for coordinating all the initiative to counter cyberbullying, with the help of the Italian Postal and Communication Police. Part of this initiative must be focused on educating the students about good and lawful online behavior, including rights and duties of online users.

Another important law that worth to be mentioned, besides the general offences concerning violence, is the specific offence for stalking included in Section 612-bis of Italian Criminal Code.

This offence, entitled “Persecutory Conducts” punishes with deprivation of liberty between 6 months and 4 years whoever, with repeated acts, threatens or harasses someone causing to the victim a persistent and serious state of anxiety or fear or causing a well-founded worry for his safety or for a safety of a close relative or, finally, forcing the victim to change his life habits.