California Assembly Bill 919, which will strengthen existing California stalking laws to include cyberstalking, was approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee today, said a representative from California Assemblyman Guy Houston’s office.
The bill will make cyberstalking, distributing and posting on the Internet certain personal identifying information and the encouragement of third-party harassment, a misdemeanor in California.
Houston authored the bill following the Internet harassment and cyberstalking of Morgan Dillingham, a Danville high schooler. A classmate made a craigslist “sex buddy” post, which included the young woman’s photograph, cell phone number and address. Authorities were powerless to do anything about the cyberstaking.
The bill will be sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate floor, the Assembly and then to Governor Schwarzenegger. At its earliest, it will go into law on Jan. 1, 2009.
If you live in Redding, Calif., Doug LaMalfa is your assemblyman.
If you’ve followed nophatpinkchicks.blogspot.com, created in Nov., 2007 to anonymously harass me, you’ll no doubt understand why this bill of utmost concern to me.
One would think that, as a society, we long past the days when women needed to hide their identity behind a penname for fear of reprisal for writing while — gasp – being female. But the malicious attacks on women, orchestrated by cyberthuds, in some cases also women, show that we’ve not come far since the days that Charlotte Bronte penned her work as Currer Bell and her sister, Emily, scribed “Wuthering Heights” under the name Ellis Bell. Imagine — to have the anatomy of a woman. Sensibilities. A mind. And the audacity to use them all.
If you think we’ve come very far since the 1850s, when the Bronte sisters feared voicing their thoughts, consider the attacks on Kathy Sierra, who dared to write about technology while being a woman. The Internet and Web 2.0, with all of its user-supplied content, shows, at a base level, how far we’ve devolved after the all of the civil rights that I thought had been won so long ago.
This bill, I hope, is a step in the right direction. Now to get it pressed into law.
-C
Filed under: Harassment, Sexual harassment, cyberstalking, ethics | Tagged: AB919, Anonymity, anonymous, Assembly Bill 919, California Assembly Bill 919, Christy Lochrie, cyberstalking, Doug LaMalfa, Guy Houston, Harassment, Internet posting, Redding, women's rights
[...] cyberstalking update Posted on August 25, 2008 by Christy Lochrie Several months about I blogged about the status of California’s Assembly Bill 919, which is designed to strengthen existing [...]
[...] cyberstalking update Posted on August 25, 2008 by Christy Lochrie Several months about I blogged about the status of California’s Assembly Bill 919, which is designed to strengthen existing [...]