Careful what you write.

Children will be going back to school soon. And, children will be bullied. Some of them will have been bullied and intimidated via phones, messaging and social media over the holidays. There will be anti-bullying initiatives, people will wear shirts and solemnly declare that bullying in all its forms is wrong. Some heed may be taken. Will it stop? I don’t think so. Do some adults at the very highest level show a good example that should be followed? Often, that’s a no too.

Sometimes, and not just a child, a person can be intimidated and bullied online so much that it’s life affecting and even life threatening. Working in the media I am always very careful what I write and what I say. Others very much less so. I guess it’s easy to think that one’s hateful actions and words may be

There will be antibullying initiatives, people will wear shirts and solemnly declare that bullying in all its forms is wrong. Some heed may be taken. Will it stop? I don’t think so.

impossible to trace or that it really doesn’t count. Perpetrators are not impossible to track down and it does count. So much so that I’ve noticed a few RCMP arrests of late of online threats and behaviours, leading to prosecutions. Racist, religious and other hate crimes are on the rise. In the UK the response went a little further recently and I would not be surprised to see this attitude by the authorities spread quickly.

The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed that since the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London that religious and hate crime has risen over 20 per cent since the same period in 2016 in England and Wales. In Manchester, the increase was five-fold.

Now the CPS has issued advice that perpetrators of hate crime on social media will be investigated and prosecuted the same way as if that crime was a face to face incident. In short, you could go to jail for posting something on social media.

We already have laws in place for libel and slander, which many online posters do not regard as serious. Now an online hate conviction could get you a criminal record and maybe jail. The CPS has told the media that its conviction rate for hate crime was 83.2 per cent for 2015-2016. Take that into other jurisdictions, and they have the technology to do it, the chances of a perpetrator being caught and prosecuted are very high indeed. It would be prudent to stop and think very hard indeed before diving into a social media flame war against someone.