A new state law which took effect on July 1 sensibly expands Connecticut's cyberbullying policies. Necessitated by computer age culture, guidelines which govern harassment across cellular and Internet networks represent prudent appraisal of where today's students can face intimidation.

Online misconduct causes real world pain. Inspiration for legislators partly comes from Phoebe Prince, a Massachusetts teen who hanged herself last year after peer abuse, which included malicious text messages and mockery on web pages.

With bipartisan support and Governor Dannel P. Malloy's signature, the 2011 enactment improves language in a 2002 bullying law to incorporate how contemporary technology has altered social interactions. Today's students have always known life as interwoven with the World Wide Web. For youths, communication through texts, email, instant messages and social networks have become customary. Thus, regulations which encourage appropriate behavior across modern mediums are forward-thinking and pragmatic.

One feature notably absent from Connecticut's 2002 legislation is unequivocal definition of cyberbullying, especially for acts which occur off school grounds. Such has been emended in 2011. Wording legalized on July 1 suitably holds education districts accountable for any cyberbullying which infringes on victims' student rights, induces hostile scholastic environments or substantially disrupts learning processes or classroom operation.

Moreover, by Jan. 1, 2012, every Board of Education must produce a safe school climate plan which specifies how bullying is addressed. Also mandatory now is designation of safe education climate specialists who review reports of aggression and help decide proper response. Additional personnel analysis, plus unambiguously worded protocol, will allow for countermeasure systems which better deter bullying in both physical and digital domains.

One of the new law's most constructive considerations is explicit timelines for how districts must proceed once potential acts of torment come to light. After perceiving an incident, teachers must verbally notify administrators within 24 hours, and file a written account inside of two days. Investigations into reported episodes must begin within 10 days. Specified, expeditious action timelines wisely match the accelerated promptness with which Internet and cell phone correspondence travels.

Most local education districts have already begun upgrading bullying codes of conduct in light of online realities. We urge all nearby academic systems to follow suit, for without clear definitions for cyberbullying, and structured remedies against it, school safety policies remain dangerously outmoded.

Content provided by the Record-Journal, Meriden.