Dr. Mary Aiken:

I broadly agree that we should have some legislative instruments related to online bullying, mostly to create an effective deterrent for the behaviour and allow the general population, children included, to realise there are consequences to their behaviour online, just as there are in the real world. On prosecuting such offences, I would look at more forward-thinking applications such as the work in which I am involved with Europol and, tangentially, the National Crime Agency. We looked at youth hacking, which is a criminal enterprise on the Internet. The current thinking in that area is that although there are laws in place to deter the activity, we do not prosecute according to those laws but, rather, divert the young people in question into a juvenile programme which reinforces that they need to desist. Although we should put laws in place which could be actively prosecuted, we should consider using deterrence programmes, rather than prosecute children for a criminal offence. I do not want to break laws on the backs of children.