SB2426 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB095 19685 RLC 46036 b

95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2007 and 2008
SB2426

Introduced 2/15/2008, by Sen. Ira I. Silverstein

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

720 ILCS 135/1-2
720 ILCS 135/2	from Ch. 134, par. 16.5

Amends the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act. Creates the Cyberbullying Law. Provides that the offense of harassment through electronic communications also includes the use of electronic communication for making a harassing statement for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person on at least 2 separate occasions; or creating and maintaining an Internet website or webpage, which is accessible to one or more third parties for a period of at least 24 hours, and which contains harassing statements made for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person. Establishes penalties. Effective immediately.

CORRECTIONAL BUDGET AND IMPACT NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning criminal law, which may be referred to as the Cyberbullying Law.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Harassing and Obscene Communications Act is amended by changing Sections 1-2 and 2 as follows:

(720 ILCS 135/1-2)

Sec. 1-2. Harassment through electronic communications.

(a) Harassment through electronic communications is the use of electronic communication for any of the following purposes:

(1) Making any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene with an intent to offend;

(2) Interrupting, with the intent to harass, the telephone service or the electronic communication service of any person;

(3) Transmitting to any person, with the intent to harass and regardless of whether the communication is read in its entirety or at all, any file, document, or other communication which prevents that person from using his or her telephone service or electronic communications device;

(3.1) Transmitting an electronic communication or knowingly inducing a person to transmit an electronic communication for the purpose of harassing another person who is under 13 years of age, regardless of whether the person under 13 years of age consents to the harassment, if the defendant is at least 16 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense;

(4) Threatening injury to the person or to the property of the person to whom an electronic communication is directed or to any of his or her family or household members; or

(5) Knowingly permitting any electronic communications device to be used for any of the purposes mentioned in this subsection (a); .

(6) Making a harassing statement for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person on at least 2 separate occasions; or

(7) Creating and maintaining an Internet website or webpage, which is accessible to one or more third parties for a period of at least 24 hours, and which contains harassing statements made for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person.

(b) As used in this Act:

(1) "Electronic communication" means any transfer of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectric or photo-optical system. "Electronic communication" includes transmissions by a computer through the Internet to another computer.

(2) "Family or household member" includes spouses, former spouses, parents, children, stepchildren and other persons related by blood or by present or prior marriage, persons who share or formerly shared a common dwelling, persons who have or allegedly share a blood relationship through a child, persons who have or have had a dating or engagement relationship, and persons with disabilities and their personal assistants. For purposes of this Act, neither a casual acquaintanceship nor ordinary fraternization between 2 individuals in business or social contexts shall be deemed to constitute a dating relationship.

(3) "Harass" means to engage in a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that alarms, torments, or terrorizes that person.

(4) "Third party" means any person other than the person violating paragraph (6) or (7) of subsection (a) and the specific person who is the focus of the violator's activities, irrespective of his or her age.

(Source: P.A. 90-578, eff. 6-1-98; 91-878, eff. 1-1-01.)

(720 ILCS 135/2) (from Ch. 134, par. 16.5)

Sec. 2. Sentence.

(a) Except as provided in subsections subsection (b) and (c), a person who violates any of the provisions of Section 1, 1-1, or 1-2 of this Act is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. Except as provided in subsection (b), a second or subsequent violation of Section 1, 1-1, or 1-2 of this Act is a Class A misdemeanor, for which the court shall impose a minimum of 14 days in jail or, if public or community service is established in the county in which the offender was convicted, 240 hours of public or community service.

(b) In any of the following circumstances, a person who violates Section 1, 1-1, or 1-2 of this Act shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony:

(1) The person has 3 or more prior violations in the last 10 years of harassment by telephone under Section 1-1 of this Act, harassment through electronic communications under Section 1-2 of this Act, or any similar offense of any state;

(2) The person has previously violated the harassment by telephone provisions of Section 1-1 of this Act or the harassment through electronic communications provisions of Section 1-2 of this Act or committed any similar offense in any state with the same victim or a member of the victim's family or household;

(3) At the time of the offense, the offender was under conditions of bail, probation, mandatory supervised release or was the subject of an order of protection, in this or any other state, prohibiting contact with the victim or any member of the victim's family or household;

(4) In the course of the offense, the offender threatened to kill the victim or any member of the victim's family or household;

(5) The person has been convicted in the last 10 years of a forcible felony as defined in Section 2-8 of the Criminal Code of 1961; or

(6) The person violates paragraph (4.1) of Section 1-1 or paragraph (3.1) of subsection (a) of Section 1-2.

(c) A person who violates paragraph (6) or (7) of subsection (a) of Section 1-2 is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, unless the offense is committed by an individual 21 years of age or older against a person under 18 years of age, in which case a violation of paragraph (6) or (7) of subsection (a) of Section 1-2 is a Class 4 felony. A second or subsequent conviction for a violation of paragraph (6) or (7) of subsection (a) of Section 1-2 is a Class 4 felony, unless the offense is committed by an individual 21 years of age or older against a person under 18 years of age, in which case a violation of paragraph (6) or (7) of subsection (a) of Section 1-2 is a Class 3 felony.

(Source: P.A. 90-578, eff. 6-1-98; 91-878, eff. 1-1-01.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.