China mulls online bullying guidelines, warns against suicide

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China mulls online bullying guidelines, warns against suicide

A woman uses her phone as people walk on a street in Beijing amid a sandstorm.

BEIJING Reuters - China is canvassing public opinion on draft guidelines to punish cyber violence, authorities said on Friday, as concern grows over online bullying and attacks targeting women and children in the world's largest internet community.

Cyber violence, unlike traditional crimes, often aims at strangers so that victims must face substantial costs to protect their rights, the guidelines revealed, leading to consequences such as social death, insanity and suicides.

On June 25, the public security ministry, the supreme people's procuratorate SPP and the supreme people's court will announce the guidelines drafted jointly by the public security ministry and the supreme people's court.

The measures target behaviours such as the spread of online rumours, insults, and personal information, and perpetrators could face criminal punishment.

The guidelines contained no details of such punishments to deter violence against minors and the disabled, the manufacturing of sex-related topics infringe the dignity of others, and the use of deepfake technology.

In a recent incident, media blamed the death of a young mother in the Central City of Wuhan on social media criticism of her demeanour after the death of her six-year-old son, who was run over by a teacher's car in a school compound.

She jumped off a high-rise building about 10 days later, the New York Daily News reported.

local authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.