CRIMINAL PROTECTION AGAINST ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN IRAQI AND FRENCH LAW PJAEE, 17(6) (2020) CRIMINAL PROTECTION AGAINST ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN IRAQI AND FRENCH LAW Dhia Moslem Abd Alameer Ghaibi 1Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq. Dhia Moslem Abd Alameer Ghaibi , Criminal Protection Against Electronic Harassment Due To Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study Between Iraqi And French Law , Palarch’s Journal Of Archaeology Of Egypt/Egyptology 17(6). ISSN 1567-214x. Keywords: Electronic harassment, Corona pandemic, international agreements to prevent harassment, Iraqi penal code, French penal code. Abstract: Harassment or so-called bullying is an ancient phenomenon in societies. It has different causes that may be due to the individual himself or the individual's environment. Harassment also has many types of material, such as beatings and assaults on people or moral contempt for the individual. Itis the resulting significant damage that may cause the individual and may lead to suicide or leave work.Because of the outbreak of Corona disease, another type of harassment has emerged towards the individuals affected, especially with social media. Electronic harassment has occurred towards these individuals. However, there are international conventions and recommendations urging states to establish laws to criminalizeharassment. We find that Iraqi legislation has a significant lack of criminal protection compared to French legislation, which continues to change and amend its rules to keep pace with developments in society. Introduction: Harassment, in general, is the injustice or repeated physical or psychological persecution of a less powerful person by another, more powerful person or group of people. It results from the imbalance of power between the bully and the bully (thevictim). That is, it is a frequent aggressive behavior aimed at deliberately harming the other person and is characterized by certain ways to gain power at the other person's expense. Harassment is often, therefore, a subject for the vulnerable party and is not limited to children only, as this act is defined by the same definition when it is committed against adults. However, some have called it harassment, harassment, or stalking the victim for financial or sexual purposes (Kiriakidis & Kavoura, 2010). The research on harassment dates back to the 1970s in some European countries, particularly Scandinavia, where educational authorities have conducted 16191 CRIMINAL PROTECTION AGAINST ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN IRAQI AND FRENCH LAW PJAEE, 17(6) (2020) many exploratory studies on the phenomenon of harassment in schools following the suicide of three teenagers because of persecution and intimidation of some classmates. In the 1980s, harassment in schools attracted a great deal of attention in Japan. The results of several studies on this phenomenon have shown that one-third of middle school students were victims of this type of violence. By 2000, this phenomenon had occupied a high degree of interest in many countries such as England and other western European countries and North America, Australia, and New Zealand. This was accompanied by numerous research and studies that recommended intervention programs to reduce and eliminate this phenomenon. (Beran & Li, 2005). But legally drafting the subject of harassment, U.S. attorney Nancy Willard attributes. Nancy Willard points out that harassment is "defamatory language of bullying behavior that includes discrimination or harassment that reveals personal information or contains offensive, vulgar or offensivecomments." It also added to the content of the definition the use of the internet and theintentions of the information. Harassment is any abuse or harmful act by one person against another or a group of individuals against one person or another. Electronic harassment is a repeated behavior aimed at physically, verbally, socially, or sexually harming another person by saying or acting to control and humiliate the victim and obtain illegal earnings from her through social media (Willard, 2011). With a simplified definition of electronic harassment, e.g. (deliberately frequently harming others by using the internet such as email, electronic games, text messages, and social media such as Youtuber Instagram and Twitter)(Moreno, 2013). The main factor in harassment is the intent to harm. It may be intended to hurt for joking or be serious, and it may be small orlarge. But whatever the intention, no matter how big, the result is that someone will be exposed to the abuse. But electronic harassment is different from traditional harassment. It allows the bully to harass the victim at any time and reduces the level of responsibility and accountability of the bully than in face- to-face harassment. It is more dangerous as it breaks into houses through modern means of communication. Therefore, the importance of criminal protection against electronic harassment due to the Corona pandemic is evident through the novelty of the subject and the significant adverse effects that harassment has on the victim psychologically and socially. The research problem also lies in the lack of Arab legislation, particularly the Iraqi Penal Code, and its inability to keep pace with the development of information technology and its accompanying major protection problems, especially at the moment. Therefore, the research approach will be an analytical inference and compare French law to the best solutions offered to the Iraqi legislator in legal protection against new crimes, particularly electronic harassment. The Electronic Harassment: The Types of electronic harassment: Before talking about electronic harassment, it is necessary to refer to the subject of traditional harassment in general. There are several types of harassment developed by researchers, including physical harassment by physically harming the victim, such as beating, kicking and psychological harassment by psychologically harming the victim by underestimating her, such as laughing in a low voice, verbal harassment with abusive words and social harassment, such as deliberate disregard for the person and isolation (Leemis, Espelage, Basile, Mercer Kollar, & Davis, 2019). Traditional types of harassment can be divided into three; First, either by saying the word like a sword, the bully seeks to downplay the victim with contempt or ridicule.Second: or it is actually like physically harming a person or making deliberate movements or laughter.Third: or even to refrain from saying or acting such as intentional disregard for the person and isolation. Electronic harassment, which is made using social media, is in many ways (Fenaughty & Harré, 2013).We can summarize them: 1. Threatening messages that arrive from an anonymous source to the mail or personal account in an application repeat the verb. 2. Socially and morally inappropriate comments on a private image, article, or video posted 16192 CRIMINAL PROTECTION AGAINST ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN IRAQI AND FRENCH LAW PJAEE, 17(6) (2020) on the internet and circulated among the community. 3. Post authentic or modified images in which the other party appears to be in a position that others do not want to see. or spread a rumor or information about the other party to abuse or discredit. or circumvention and leaking information that the other party never wishes to share with anyone. 4. Harassment and extortion through multiple electronic communication channels. 5. The telephone call from a known or unknown party spreads rumors about another party through which it aims to harm and discredit the other. 6. E-rejection or exclusion occurs when someone does not respond to an email or instantly as quickly as expected. The reasons and damages of the harassment: Studies attribute the emergence of harassment in schools to changes in human societies, mainly related to the emergence of violence and discrimination of all kinds, the disruption of family relations in society, the impact of media on middle and secondary adolescents, the large number of poor immigrants living in slums and the inability of the parents of these bullies to control their behaviors(Kiriakidis & Kavoura, 2010). In general, the most important reasons for the spread of harassment can be summarized in the following: 1. Family reasons: In contemporary cultures, families prioritize meeting children's physical needs by the shelter, clothes, health, decent schooling, and entertainment while neglecting the most critical role they have to play with the infant or young man, namely educational follow-up, behavior assessment, behavior adjustment, and a good education. To the pointof neglect, violence is one of the most important causes of harassment. The child, who grows up in a family atmosphere characterized by violence between spouses and children,must be affected by what he has seen or what has been done. The government's response to the 2009 national programs is to address child abuse and the need to address the issue of child abuse (Bocij, 2004). 2. Psychological reasons: Often, an individual can resortto violence due to his illness and behavioral disorders that need treatment and intervention from professional people, such as pediatric psychiatrists, psychologists, or school counselors. 3. Reasons associated with the development of information