An efficient authority to regulate and investigate cyber bullying is needed because while Malta’s internet service providers have an agreement to remove any offending online content, there is no competent authority to instruct them to do so.

“Have such an agreement where the internet service providers pledged to operate correctly but where there is no competent authority which would investigate and give them the necessary authorisation is as good as nothing,” Labour MP Deborah Schembri said this afternoon.

Dr Schembri was addressing a press conference outside the PN Headquarters together with fellow Anti-Cyber Harassment Alliance Malta (Acha) members Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Joseph Cuschieri.

The Acha members had just come out of “a positive” meeting with the Nationalist Party.

Dr Schembri said they were not waiting for immediate feedback from the PN as the issue of cyber harassment was a very complex one but she was glad to observe the willingness to cooperate and promote an improved law.

The PN together with other stakeholders will be active participants which will see a draft policy drawn up and discussed in a seminar in December.

Dr Schembri urged people to log on to www.achamalta.com and impart their experiences and suggestions related to cyber harassment, defamation and stalking.