In Victoria it is an offence for a person to use a carriage service in a way that ‘reasonable persons’ would regard as being menacing, harassing or offensive.
The maximum penalty is imprisonment for three years.
A ‘carriage service can mean any form of communication, such as Twitter or Facebook posts, phone calls, a two-way radio, letters, mail or any form of communication.
Persistent unwanted attention, communication or contact, even indirectly, such as using fake names, is a serious offence.
The Commonwealth Criminal Code set out in the schedule to the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cwlth), provides for an offence of ‘using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.’
It isn’t necessary for an online post, letter, or phone call to threaten actual harm for it to be menacing. Nor is it essential for the communication to be made directly to the person menaced, such as using pseudonyms or fake online ‘handles’.
“If the original caller, person messaging – the ‘messenger’ or ‘poster’ to social media accounts intends the communication to be communicated to the ultimate recipient, it is enough,” a Legal Aid spokesperson told VicNews.
Using a VPN to harass someone online, even if not using the person being harassed real name is still a criminal offence and police can obtain bench warrants to apply to telecommunications providers to provide who was using a VPN to hide their true identity.
