A former chief justice of the Family Court says current laws are ineffective when it comes to fighting harassment and bullying online, and the Federal Government should consider jail time for cyber-bullies.

Alastair Nicholson, who was chief justice of the Family Court says Australia should follow New Zealand’s lead; they have proposed laws making cyber-bullying a criminal offence punishable by up to three months behind bars.

Recommendations from the former judge go further still, saying the Government should form a tribunal to deal specifically with cyber bullying, including the powers to force internet companies to remove offensive material from their websites. 

Mr Nicholson says imprisonment should only be used for absolute worst case scenarios, but should still serve as a powerful deterrent; “If you had an offence of cyber bullying, that could be a very good educational tool to put people on notice that this sort of behaviour is not on," he said, “if you've got a nasty bullying incident but not one that's likely to be life threatening or anything like that, you don't really want to charge someone with an offence that carries 10 years' imprisonment, whereas if you've got a comparatively summary offence, like the New Zealanders have suggested, then it's quite simple."

The Federal Government's current resource for victims of cyber-bullying is CyberSmart.