Cyberbullying is defined by Oxford Languages as the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.
In the current times, the social media has been used by some persons to intimidate or threaten their targets through messages et al. Thus, one would wonder if the law has remedies for these ugly acts of intimidation, threats, and more.
There may not be a crime of cyberbullying strictly so called in our laws, but happily the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as The Act) has come to rescue in the circumstances and has made provisions for cyberstalking.
Section 58 of The Act therefore defines cyberstalking as:
“A course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear”
On who a reasonable man or person is, the Court of Appeal in the case of OILSERV LTD v. L. A. IBEANU & COMPANY (NIG) LTD & ANOR (2007) LPELR-5149(CA) defines a reasonable man thus:
“A reasonable man is a fair-minded man, rational in thought and orientation. He is a man endowed with reason. It includes the ordinary person seen on our streets, whose means of transport is the popular Okada or mammy wagon. It also includes the affluent, highly literate or otherwise. See UBN Ltd. v. Oredein (1992) 6 NWLR (Pt. 247) p. 355.” Per OLABODE RHODES-VIVOUR, JCA (Pp 18 – 19 Paras F – A)
For a better understanding of what constitutes cyberstalking, Section 24 of the Act provides:
”Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that-‐ (a)Is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be so sent; or
(b)He knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent:
Commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000, 000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
EXPLANATION
At the first instance, we must underscore the point that for an act to amount to cyberstalking, it must be a course of conduct directed at a particular person, and by the provisions of Section 58 of The Act a person has been defined to include an individual, body corporate, organization or group of persons. Furthermore, such a conduct directed to an individual, body corporate (e.g. a company), organization or group of persons must equally be of such a nature as would cause a reasonable person to be afraid in the circumstances, and it is sufficient if a common man in the street who is right thinking can perceive fear from such a conduct.
On the other hand, for any course of conduct to qualify as cyberstalking under The Act, it must be a message or any other matter which a person intentionally sends or intentionally causes another to send through a computer system or network. Computer system includes mobile phones et al, and network is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communications channels that allow sharing of resources and information. Network can therefore include social media sites where information or messages can be shared.
On the third limb, for any message or matter to qualify as cyberstalking, it must be grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or that one knows such a message is false and is for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another.
Flowing from the above, if a conduct meets the foregoing requirements as explained, then one can be said to have committed the offence of cyberstalking and shall be liable to be convicted to either a fine or imprisonment or to both fine and imprisonment. In any case, the fine can’t exceed the sum of N7, 000, 000.00 and the imprisonment can’t be more than 3 years.
In the second part of the write-up, I would be discussing other conducts that can amount to cyberstalking and the punishment thereto.
