Faced with an outbreak of harassment and cyberbullying which is hitting its youth hard, France is signaling the end of playtime for harassers. In its arsenal: heavier sentences, automatic judicial evaluations, a ban on social networks, confiscation of cell phones and even a digital curfew. This is a change in tone to be observed with the greatest interest.
This is because here too, this scourge hits hard. Statistics Canada revealed last month that cyber victimization is now the lot of one in four young Canadians aged 12 to 17. Last February, MediaSmarts published a report in which 32% of young Canadians aged 9 to 17 said they had been victims of nastiness and cruelty online. Nearly half (49%) said they had witnessed it.
Also in February, Cybertip, the Canadian clearinghouse for reporting cases of child sexual exploitation and abuse on the Internet, reported that reports of computer luring for sexual purposes against children had reached a peak in Canada. From 2018 to 2022, these jumped by a spectacular 815%. A ceiling ? Unfortunately no, the reports continued to come in. To the point that Cybertip recorded a further 150% increase in sextortion reports in the last six months.
The Legault government is very sensitive to this invasive evil, which it has made a priority. His Minister of Public Security is preparing an ambitious bill on cyberbullying. Its goal: “to put an end to party » cyberbullies. But the months pass one after the other while François Bonnardel is still at the stage of observation and reflection. Before getting wet, he says he wants to see what Canada will do. He also looks at what is being done abroad.
Good thing, on Friday, Mr. Bonnardel exchanged ideas with his federal, provincial and territorial counterparts in Public Security and Justice. While everyone agreed that cyberbullying has a “significant impact on people’s mental and physical health,” no one went so far as to make this battle a shared priority from coast to coast. At most we will have formulated a few pious wishes. There is nothing there to inspire or force Mr. Bonnardel to move up a gear.
However, time is running out. While our decision-makers think and procrastinate, our safety nets continue to age. The Quebec law aimed at preventing and combating bullying and violence at school dates from 2012, the Canadian law on criminal harassment, from 1985. Both are from another age, an age which understands nothing of throes of connected life 24/7.
The interministerial plan against school bullying of the French Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, is intended to be of its time. There too, we have put a lot of energy into prevention in recent years. And, as here, we see that that is not enough. Above all, we observe that programs with variable geometry, very popular in Quebec, generate results to match: very variable.
Mme Borne therefore opts for an all-round universal approach. Its goal: to make the fight against cyberharassment a state affair in the sharpest sense of the term. Everyone is asked to get involved: National Education, digital technology, justice, the police, health, family, sport, lark!
In this great and noisy general mobilization, prevention remains the keystone, but education is gaining momentum with the introduction of empathy courses from a very young age, as in Denmark, and citizenship courses at the most large number and training for the entire educational community, parents included. Needless to say, these are tracks that everyone wants.
Mme Terminal doesn’t stop there. Prevention and education are good, but when that is no longer enough, we must punish. And she pulls no punches: banning a young harasser from social networks, confiscating his phone, imposing a digital curfew on him, prescribing a restorative justice process. All of this plays out in a thorny technological, ethical and legal terrain, which will not be easily mapped out.
The systematic reporting of acts of harassment deemed serious will also have to be carefully weighed, its rules set unequivocally. Quebec, if it wants to go in this direction, will have to maneuver with the greatest caution. Like the young offender, the young harasser, if he has to answer for his actions, should be entitled to a process that takes into account his immaturity. Above all, this approach must be thought of from a perspective of assumed social reintegration.
We understand, it is a colossal project that awaits France. A undermined site, in addition, but oh so necessary. It is just as much here. We can’t wait to follow suit by moving up a gear too. But in our way and on our terms.