Cyber-bullying is defined by L. May 29, 2017, no. 71 as any form of pressure, aggression, harassment, blackmail, insult, denigration, defamation, identity theft, alteration, unlawful acquisition, manipulation, unlawful processing of personal data to the detriment of minors, carried out by telematic means, as well as the dissemination of online content also targeting one or more members of the minor’s family whose intentional and predominant purpose is to isolate a minor or a group of minors by enacting serious abuse, harmful attack or mocking them.
The definition contains a kind of list of crimes that can be carried out by the cyber-bully against the minor, including extortion, threat, private violence, defamation, injury, battery, substitution of person, persecutory acts, harassment or disturbance of persons, abusive access to a computer system, child pornography, possession and spread of child pornography, incitement to suicide, fraud.
The criminal defence is preceded by the warning of the police commissioner and is combined with administrative protection: it is recognized the right of the minor over 14 years old, as well as of each parent or person exercising responsibility for the minor, to bring an action against the data controller or the operator of the website or social media, in order to obtain the take down of any other personal data of the minor when spread online. In the event of no response within 48 hours, mor if the data controller or the website or social media manager cannot be identified, the concerned party may submit a similar request to the Data Protection Authority, which will act within 48 hours from receipt of the request.
