Lawcom has issued a Ministerial Briefing and a draft Bill which media -- and Law Commission commentators - have characterised as the "cyberbullying Bill".

The problem of bullying needs to be tackled, but it extends over a far wider realm than the online environment. The Commission, to be fair, does make some recommendations on general anti-bullying programmes in schools. However, "new" technology is disproportionately stigmatised.

Since this initiative sprang from a larger project on "new media" it is easy to see why it was considered in this light; but that pedigree risks imbalance. If we consider the logical Venn diagram of a circle indicating "harmful communication" overlapping with one indicating "digital", it's evident that the Commission has been more willing to stray into broader-ranging controls on digital communication than it has been to tackle harmful communication that is not digital.

The report tells the story of a young woman induced while drunk to do things she would normally not have done. The acts were recorded on a mobile phone. She was repeatedly vilified and eventually forced to leave her school and the area. Reading this disgraceful account, it seems plain that 90 percent of what happened was unacceptable "live" behaviour. Digital media were concerned only in making recording and distribution easier. Yet the affair is held up as somehow the fault of technology.

The reasons given for treating digital harm separately from other forms are debatable at best. Digital harm is quickly distributed "all over the world", says project leader John Burrows QC. However, unless the subject is a celebrity, any comment will quickly outrun the limited group of people motivated to make anything of it.