Textual Harassment Is Not a Joke

Textual Harassment Is Not a Joke. Like sexual harassment, Textual Harassment is very real, it is a form of discrimination, and it is a growing concern in our new technology driven lifestyle. Harassment is when someone does not solicit or incite contact, weather it is physically, verbally, or electronically. The victim may be a woman or a man.

A Growing Concern in Today's Society

In recent years many cell phone and computer owners, young and old, have been sending text messages (officially Short Message Service or SMS for short) in order to easily contact and correspond with friends. As the popularization of text messaging grew rapidly in 2000 textual harassment as it is now know has become epidemic in its growth and is harming cell phone users worldwide. Textual harassment has presented itself as such a problem because the laws have not been made clear.

US Law

Harassing someone by text messaging has become such an invasion of one’s private space that Oklahoma legislators passed a bill last March making harassment by text messaging a criminal act.

In the United States, legislation was signed in 2006 that disallows the posting or e-mailing of messages that are intended to annoy people without having included the senders true identity. The law: Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 covers many forms of harassment, via the internet or telecommunication system, including phone harassment, but not specifically text messaging:

H.R 3402: Whoever ...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet ...without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person ...who receives the communications ...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

This law rewrites existing telephone harassment law, US Code Section 47, Chapter 5, Sub-Chapter 2, § 223: Whoever ...by means of a telecommunications device knowingly ...makes, creates, or solicits, and initiates the transmission of, any comment ...with intent to harass any person at the called number; ...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

What if the Problem Shows No Signs of Stopping?

The victim should directly inform the harasser that the conduct is unwelcome and must stop. It is important for the victim to communicate that the conduct is unwelcome, particularly when the alleged harasser may have some reason to believe that the advance may be welcomed. However, a victim of harassment need not always confront his/her harasser directly, so long as his/her conduct demonstrates that the harasser's behavior is unwelcome. The victim should also use any employer complaint mechanism or grievance system available. If this harassment is applicable to your personal life only save the messages and contact your local Police Department.