Canton goes after online bullying, harassment

CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich.It's no longer harassing letters and constant hang-up phone calls, it's online harassment on multiple social media platforms. Log in any day on Facebook or Twitter and you're bound to see bad behavior, but it crosses over into police territory when it's threatening, pornographic or  publically humiliating—constantly.

Police are getting so many complaints of bad online behavior that prosecutors are recommending changes to longstanding harassment ordinances. That's exactly what the Canton Township Board of Trustees has done. Amending the township's ordinance to include all social media platforms.

The vast majority of harassment cases police get these days are online threats.

"When it gets to the level of threats, intimidation or hurtful type bullying, especially for juveniles or younger teens, this ordinance will now cover that", said Lt. Scott Hughesdon.

Get charged and convicted of online harassment and you're looking at a $500 fine. Hughesdon tells Local 4 that the majority of cases Canton sees are from the under 25 age group, and many of them are romantic relationships gone bad.

For some reason, people sitting behind a keyboard think they're invisible, but that's not so. Canton has a dedicated detective who has specialized training to track down those using phony aliases on social media to stalk and harass. The moral of the story is police will always be able to trace your IP address. "Whatever you write could come back to haunt you," Hughesdon said.


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