The head of Telenor Norge AS, the domestic division of huge Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor, is hoping for a summer free of online bullying and threats after a new law took effect that makes such digital activity a crime.
Berit Svendsen, managing director of Telenor Norge, wrote in a commentary in newspaper Aftenposten on Saturday that Telenor doesn’t want to frighten parents or other Internet and mobile phone customers, or exaggerate the negative consequences of the digital lives of children and youth, “but we all need to take seriously the challenges that the anonymity of the Internet and mobile phones offer to net bullies.”
The new Norwegian law that took effect this month was important, Svendsen wrote. It now makes it a crime to write threats, discriminatory remarks or expressions of hate on the Internet. It’s long been a crime to make threats in letters to the editors of newspapers, for example, and now that’s been extended to the Internet.
Telenor has carried out its own campaign against digital bullying called Bruk Hue (Use your head) in association with the Red Cross, Norway’s media authorities and child welfare groups.
newsinenglish.no staff
