New Online Bullying Laws In Effect In Chicago

When you think of online bullying, you probably picture hurtful comments and "your mom" jokes. Unfortunately, things have escalated to more serious levels, with threats and violence becoming a growing concern. In response, law enforcement is stepping up efforts to prevent dangerous actions like swatting and doxxing.

This new law kicked off at the start of 2024.

Massive online bullying issues in America have evolved far beyond what we traditionally think of as "bullying." These problems have now become serious crimes that are being treated with the utmost urgency. Practices like doxxing—where personal information is maliciously shared online—and swatting—where false reports lead to dangerous police actions—are at the forefront of legal efforts to combat online harassment. Law enforcement agencies are now dedicating significant resources to addressing these dangerous activities, recognizing their severe consequences on victims' lives. The growing recognition of these actions as criminal offenses is a crucial step toward creating a safer online environment.

What Is Doxxing In Illinois

All someone needs is your address to dox you. The full answer is as follows,

Doxxing (also spelled “doxing”) is the act of revealing someone’s personal information online. Doxxing is a form of online harassment that means publicly exposing someone’s real name, address, job, or other identifying info without a victim’s consent. The aim of doxxing is to humiliate, bully, harass, or otherwise harm a victim.

 

What Is Swatting In Illinois

In short, Swatting is using info gathered about you to make a fake police call claiming something bad is happening at the location you are currently at. The full answer is as follows,

Swatting is a criminal harassment act of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person is allegedly suicidal or homicidal and may or may not be armed, among other things

Obviously, swatting was already illegal. Kids may not understand that leaking their info could be deadly. On the other had a kid may think that calling the cops as a joke is an innocent prank. It's not.

Again, reports state that this law is nearly a year old now meaning there is no excuse for ignorance of it.

The Civil Liability for Doxxing Act (Public Act 103-0439) is a new anti-doxxing law recently passed in Illinois. While Governor Pritzker signed and approved the bill on August 4th, 2023, the law will not go into effect until January 1, 2024.

This is punishable by law in Illinois. New reports state that If you or a family member are affected by this actions can be taken.

The law allows doxing victims to take civil action against their attacker to recover damages. To take civil action, the following should be true:

An individual intentionally publishes another person’s information without consent.
The person whose information is published can, in fact, be identified by that information.
The person posting personally identifying information does so with the intent to harass or cause harm and knows (or recklessly disregards) that the person whose information is published may suffer harm as outlined in the act.
The published information causes a person to suffer economic injury; emotional distress; fear of bodily injury or death to oneself and loved ones; or substantial life disruption.