There is no question that Facebook and other social media platforms are entertaining. They can certainly also be used in a positive way to springboard your career or to spread awareness on an issue. But of course, there is the dark side of cyberspace which unfortunately is very active and many who occupy that space have no rules or discretion anything goes. That is where cyberbullying comes in. Today the Special Envoy for Women and Children Kim Simplis Barrow along with the Ministry of Human Development held a forum at the Biltmore to discuss ways to bolster the laws regarding cyberbullying in Belize. We found out more from the Special Envoy and the consultant for the police department's IT unit.

Kim Simplis Barrow - Special Envoy for Women and Children
"So today we are hosting a cyber-crime forum and it is focused on advancing the cybercrime legislation in Belize. As you know we have seen an increase of cyberbullying and my office along with the Ministry of Human Development, we wanted to make sure that we have legislations in place to protect our vulnerable population. But it is not only about getting the legislation. It is also about ensuring that we have a good advocacy campaign which is an educational campaign for everyone but particularly for our young people, young persons. In addition to that it is about ensuring that the judicial system, that the security forces, the cyber-crime unit is equip with the resources both in financial resources and equipment wise to be able to detect when these crimes are committed and to be efficient as possible in submitting evidence for prosecution."

Harry Noble - Consultant, Information Technology and Cyber Unit, Police Dept.
"We are very glad that they have the legislation because like I said it will enable us to be able to prosecute and do more in terms of bringing down the cyber bullying because at present all we can do when somebody comes and complains about cyber bullying is charge the person for a mischievous act and a mischievous act carries no kind of punishment so it a little misdemeanour so it creates the idea of impunity that I can do this crime and get away with it and it encourages it so by having this legislation that makes it a crime and makes it a bigger punishment people will think twice before they commit the cyber bullying crimes."

Reporter
"But you can't punish someone without a conviction, we have been known to have low conviction rates in other types of crimes, which, I mean cyberbullying, people have been known to use fake profiles or hide behind fake profiles so you can have 10 Marion Ali's but I am the real Marion Ali, who are those other people and how do you identify them and how do you get successful convictions."

Harry Noble
"The way we go about it, we have been contacting for instance the biggest social media platform that this happens on is Facebook so they have been contacting the Facebook, they have a section for police and we tell them that these people have been doing these kinds of events and it is a crime but they tell us, hey, show us it is a crime that we are prosecuting then we will give you evidence when they give us the evidence we can see the different email addresses, telephones that have been used and from there we can track who you are once we have that back up because when you sign on to those things, you have to give some information about yourself. At present it is difficult because we don't have what you call a computer security incidence response team, we are in the process of forming that unit so it will be recognized as a cyber-crime and will make it easier for getting information from foreign bodies that hosts most of these cyber-crimes."

There are 20 members on the police department's IT unit. They are working on forming a computer security incidence response team to better tackle cyber crime through international collaboration.