Section 9 — Online harassment

(1)In this Act, “online harassment” means the communication of online material that a reasonable person would conclude is —

(a)threatening, abusive, insulting, sexual or indecent; and

(b)likely to cause a person (called in this section the victim) harassment, alarm, distress or humiliation.Illustration X is a photo‑journalist who documents indigenous tribes. X takes a photograph of a group of naked tribespeople preparing a meal and posts it online as part of X’s work. X’s post is not material that a reasonable person would conclude is sexual or indecent.

(2)For the purposes of subsection (1), “online harassment” does not include the communication of sexual or indecent material that has a legitimate purpose related to science, medicine, education or art.Explanation.— Online material has a legitimate purpose related to art which a reasonable person would regard as art. Illustrations (a) X, the supervisor of a counselling service provider, circulates training material with case studies of sexually harassing online posts in an internal messaging group for counsellors. X’s communication has a legitimate purpose related to education. (b) X posts sex‑education graphics in a messaging group with X’s colleagues. The material is unrelated to the group’s work, and X continues to do so despite requests from X’s colleagues to stop because they find it harassing. X’s posts do not have a legitimate purpose related to science, medicine, education or art.

(3)To avoid doubt, where a person (X) is not the person to whom the communication in subsection (1) is directed, X may also be a victim within the meaning of that subsection if, by reason of X’s personal relationship with the person to whom the communication was directed, the communication is likely to cause X harassment, alarm, distress or humiliation.Illustrations (a) X reads threats on the Internet directed at another person, Y, with whom X has no relationship. A reasonable person would not conclude that X is likely to be caused harassment, alarm, distress or humiliation from reading these threats. X is not a victim within the meaning of subsection (1). (b) X reads threats on the Internet directed at X’s child, Y. A reasonable person would conclude that X is likely to be caused harassment, alarm, distress or humiliation from reading these threats. X is a victim within the meaning of subsection (1), even if X is not expressly mentioned in the threats.

(4)A communication of online material that does not on its own satisfy the requirements of subsection (1), is nevertheless treated as satisfying those requirements if it would satisfy those requirements when considered together with one or more other communications of online material, and after taking into account —

(a)the number of all the communications made;

(b)the period of time within which all the communications are made;

(c)the nature of each communication or all the communications when taken as a whole; and

(d)the circumstances in which each communication or all the communications when taken as a whole is or are made.