Internet law chat room

In 2006, the first ever law suit for statements made in a chat room happened when a man argued that he was being humiliated in a chat room and sued America Online and the two other chatting visitors. But later that same year, a man got awarded over $20.000 for being called a Nazi in a chat room.
Although there is no Internet law per se, almost all existing laws have been extended to encompass the Internet and the consequences are reaching far. Cyber bullying is an increasingly recurrent phenomenon which the legislation is currently trying to curb. Usually happening in chat rooms and forums, cyber bullies zero in on a victim and harass him until he either leaves the chat room or the forum. In South Korea the abuse is getting to a ridiculous extent. Two celebrities, Korean nationals, have committed suicide because of being targeted by cyber bullies’ brutal campaign. The government reacted and now all people going online have to post real names and even their social security numbers. The law makes the portals on the Internet responsible for such occurrences. This development is currently being closely watched, because this kind of abusive behaviour is not limited to South Korea.
Other countries, like Russia and China, have cyber police combing the chat rooms and any cyber bullies encountered will be vigorously prosecuted. But these countries also go after people who complain of the bad situation in the country, the government, the communism, actually anything that is negative towards the government.
The latest development concerns the abuse of children and the American legislation is working on a law, actually amendments to the existing Film and Publications Act, which seems to regulate chat rooms, where sites and portals have to more closely monitor their chat rooms and forums, making sure that there is no risk of harm for vulnerable children. Although such control cannot be warranted for full 24 hours per day, nevertheless, the security measures must react more swiftly and remove cyber bullies as soon as they display such behaviour.
Furthermore, the legislative body confirms that chat room records may be used in a possible law suit, based on grounds of the case from 2006, where 27 people were arrested following a crackdown on the Web site called Kiddypics and Kiddyvids. An Internet chat room on that site streamed live child molestations and users were logging on, chatting and apparently instigating the abuse. Although this is a very clear cut case, the future will show how far this lost anonymity in chat rooms will be used in prospective litigations.