Foreword

The year 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the Internet, which has done more to transform the world than any technological advance since the printing press.

The Web has revolutionized communications, turned the business world upside down (nearly killing off entire industries, like music stores, and creating new ones, like social networking sites), and enabled people everywhere instant access to dizzying amounts of information. For young people, who today often begin typing on computers and cell phones before they can read and write, the distinctions between physical space and cyberspace are increasingly melting away.

As executive editor of The New York Times Upfront, a national news magazine for teenagers, I’ve come to realize that the Web is to this generation of young people what the playground, schoolyard, and shopping mall were to mine. It’s where teens (and preteens) go to explore and socialize: they surf, carry on multiple IM conversations simultaneously, and fill their Facebook pages with photos, hourly updates, and—too often—diary-like confessions.

But it’s also a place where they’re extremely vulnerable to attack, from complete strangers and even people they know: today’s cyberbullies. I have experienced the old-fashioned kind of bullying. As a fifth grader, I was tormented for almost a year by a boy who smacked me and challenged me to hit him back (I refused) until he lost interest and found other prey.

Those schoolyard bullies still exist, of course, but cyberbullying can be just as terrifying, though in a very different way: The aggression is carried out online, with victims subjected to harassment or public ridicule. And thanks to the viral nature of the Web, the audience can be virtually limitless.

According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, between a tenth and a third of young people have been victimized by a cyberbully, and schools around the nation are scrambling to create policies to deal with the phenomenon. Not surprisingly, as with most things related to the Web, the law is still playing catch up when it comes to figuring out how to handle cyberbullying. But it IS beginning to catch up.

That’s why Judge Jacobs’s book is so valuable. Using real court cases and stories of both cyberbullies and their victims, he provides a road map to the current state of the law regarding online harassment. In addition, he offers practical advice on how to make sure your own online communications—including private emails and texts—don’t get you into trouble.

It should be required reading not only for victims of this 21st century form of bullying, but also for school administrators, teachers, parents, and young people who need to have their wits about them when they’re exploring the vast and still uncharted territory of the Internet.

Ian Zack

Executive Editor

The New York Times Upfront