Federal Laws. Sometimes bullying overlaps with discriminatory harassment, which is covered under federal civil rights laws. Learn more about your civil rights.

StopBullying.gov

Also, a related crime, cyber stalking, does have federal level laws in place.

What Is the Federal Cyberstalking Law? The federal cyberstalking law (18 U.S.C. 2261A(2)) is similar to Florida's statute. It provides that a person commits an offense when they use a computer service or electronic device to exchange harmful communication with another person. Nov 10, 2021

What are the legal implications of cyberstalking?

Federal law provides some tools to combat cyberstalking. Under 18 U.S.C. 875(c), it is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, to transmit any communication in interstate or foreign commerce containing a threat to injure the person of another.

Therefore, the FBI does investigate cyber bullying to see if there is the more serious crime of stalking actually in play. They will know the difference and be able to bring forensics into play to check.

Does the FBI investigate cyberstalking?
Cyberstalking and sextortion are serious crimes that are investigated and prosecuted, and victims' identities can be shielded from the public. Anyone who has been the victim of cyberstalking or sextortion should contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL FBI (225-5324).

For this reason, I don't mess around with this sort of person, I just report the activity/behavior to the feds and let them do their jobs. And it's not the job or duty of the admins to handle such things. If need be, the feds can and will refer it to other agencies including the CIA or Interpol, depending on where the perps live.

I am 58, not 15, sometimes it is useful to have somebody's granny around, cuz we know useful things like this. The thing is, if you are being victimized, don't hesitate to call them. Don't let someone convince you that they won't listen or take you seriously, because that is a lie intended to keep themselves out of jail. Call them if you are living in terror for your life, freedom, or for fear of other awful things, even if it's just a a possibility...because if the FBI knows soon enough, they can prevent things from happening or at least put you in protection....that can be under a new name and in a place you have never lived before, since nobody would think to look for you there.

If you know of someone else in trouble, report that too. There is a witness protection program that's been in place for decades. Report it and use it if you need to.

I'm not sure you're interpreting what the FBI is saying they deal with correctly - if someone on sylestia is just like, a bit rude to you, or even being bigoted, the FBI does not deal with that. It'd be the equivalent of reporting your child eating an extra cookie to the police - nowhere near their purview. Generally, law enforcement of any kind doesn't deal with online bullying unless it's involving serious, credible threats, or constitutes actual cyberstalking (which rude messages on an online pet game do not constitute - we're all pretty anonymous on here). The admins, however, do investigate those incidents - and in my experience, for both smaller and serious issues, they do a pretty good job.

If you want to get more specific, any internet issues are reported to the FBI through the IC3 - Internet Crime Complaint Center. These issues have to be *criminal* in nature. Usually, they're investigating credit card scams, ransomware, etc. If someone is genuinely stalking or threatening you, and you have reason to believe they are putting you in danger, *then* the police or FBI might end up involved. But as someone who's been here 5 years, the majority of issues I see on sylestia barely constitute a report to the Admins, let alone federal law enforcement.

The website you linked, Stopbullying.gov, outlines when you need to report online harassment to a form of law enforcement, and its list doesn't include your average online bullying.

I clarify this not because I don't think people *shouldn't* use these resources, but your post (and profile after a quick scan) seem to encourage reporting more average, ordinary online rudeness, and that's simply not who deals with that. I'd also suggest that maybe talking about "sextortion" on a kid friendly pet game isn't the most appropriate ^^;

Nevermind the fact that the FBI cant do much to people outside the US. The local agencies in those countries need to co-operate and need to give them support to find the person in their country. Imagine a world where you say something someone didnt like and they report you to the FBI and your local police arrest you. I wouldnt want to live in that world. Let me share something with you

Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm.

Cyberbullying is the use of cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to harass, threaten or intimidate someone. Cyberbullying is often done by children, who have increasingly early access to these technologies

I have indeed experienced bullying here. A user that has been banned doctored a screenshot depicting me saying something i didnt say to another user. The words i was supposed to say look different to the rest of the screenshot and uses contractions i wouldnt such as they're which i wouldnt use. I typically always use They are. I cannot remember even one time i have used They're. Anyways this screenshot was mailed to 100s people to smear my good name and make people hate me. Some people didnt believe it, others did and while admin got on top of it and banned the user, it was out there and people started to treat me differently, started to treat me the way i supposedly did to this other person. Admin needed to step in again as every time i posted in chat i would be treated badly, spoken to like i was trash. And after an incident i wont go into i needed to step away from the site for awhile. I had over 6 months where i did no projects, nothing in the grove atm. I didnt upgrade my gear it was all pretty basic. Through grinding and buying things with gold, i have managed to get to where i would be without my break.

Im not going to say bullying doesnt happen on sites like this, i have seen it personally but reporting it to the FBI? i feel like that would be a waste of their resources when Admin can deal with these types of issues. If its proven that someone is bullying say a 45 yr old from Texas, what happens? In australia, not alot. A friend of a friend was bullied on fb. person created 100s of accounts to bully this girl. She was 28 when she ended the bullying by taking herself out of the situation. When my cousins daughter was 12 she was being bullied by a lady in her 30s. This lady messaged family about things my cousin was supposed to have done. She did this stuff for months. My cousin took an AVO out on the lady to try and make her stop but she kept it up. Ignoring it was the only way to deal with her. She was ignored and didnt get what she wanted, which was a reaction, so she moved onto someone else i suppose. The police here in both cases cant do anything to the people responsible. These were alot worse than what you might experience on sylestia. Someone telling you something you dont want to hear isnt bullying. Someone mailing you everyday for a month telling you awful things, this is bullying and would be stopped if you went to admin, wouldnt stop if someone went to the FBI. it would likely be handed to the admin to handle if they looked into it at all.