Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet and other forms of online and computer technologies to stalk, harass, or threaten a person, group or organization. The action of cyberstalking can include, but is not limited to, threatening behavior, unwanted advances, monitoring, identity theft, soliciting sex to minors and the gathering of personal information without consent. In all cases, the victim(s) can be aware or not aware that such activities are occurring. Cyberstalking can also be accompanied by or lead to in-person stalking and can result in the death of the victim(s) involved.

Background

Facebook and other social networking sites can be used to cyberstalk.

Cyberstalking emerged from the rise of technology, including the mass digitization of personal information and creation of virtual communication. Cyberstalking includes sending unwanted, threatening, or obscene email, posting obscene or threatening messages in discussions or forums. This can include using the internet to gather private information, tracking somebody’s Internet activity, and more. Cyberstalkers may or may not know their victims. Cyberstalking can be harmful to victims and can potentially cause them death and other related injuries.

If they do not know their victim, then they can find their targets through social media, chatrooms, discussion threads and many other methods online. Some people believe that more and more people are getting involved invost cyberstalking due to the ease of anonymity. Some of these people would not have engaged in offline stalking for fear of being caught.

Who is involved

Perpetrators

Cyberstalkers can be anybody. They may know their victim or they could be completely random. Leroy McFarlane and Paul Bocij recognize five types of cyberstalkers:

• The Rejected Stalker had an relationship with the victim at some point, either romantically or as a friend or family member. They are motivated by seeking both revenge and reconciliation.
• The Intimacy Seeker tries to achieve a relationship with the victim who has peaked their interest and whom they might have mistakenly believed to think returns that interest.
• The Incompetent Suitor wants to develop a relationship but cannot seem to do so within the normal social rules of courtship. They are often intellectually and/or socially incompetent.
• The Resentful Stalker wants to payback their victim for some supposed injury or humiliation they have caused.
• The Predatory Stalker gathers information for the purposes of preparing for an attack.

Victims

Anybody can be a victim of cyberstalking. In fact, in a study about cyberstalking victims, over 82% of the respondents had experienced cyberstalking in one form or another . Common types of victims include but are not limited to women, children and teenagers, or past/present intimate partners.

Ethical implications

There is much debate on whether cyberstalking is considered unique to in-person stalking, or if it is just under the umbrella term of stalking regardless of what in what context the stalking was taking place—online or offline.

Universal Public Morality

It is unclear hen moral harm occurs in cyberspace, if it it the players rights who are infringed and violated the avatars. The uniqueness debate is also called into question. In the case of cyberstalking, traditionalists would argue that stalking is stalking no matter if it was done online or offline, while philosophers would argue that there are some aspects of cyberstalking that are unique, such as the new scope at which stalking can now be carried out online and the ease at which personal information can now be found online .

Is there a difference?

The ease with which "stalking", a type of antisocial networking, has been incorporated as an acceptable activity for users on various social media sites (specifically Facebook) is an alarming fact that raises the question whether ethical norms have been changed in the online environment.

Victim Blaming

A good deal of the information posted on line is done so voluntarily by the victim of cyberstalking. Some people would argue that the people who posted the content are consenting to the information being seen and shared by anyone who has access to it. This brings up a multitude of people who could be blamed for any threats or other harm that results from cyberstalking. The victim could be blamed for sharing the information online, but the people who shared it past the victim sharing it online could also be blamed if something malicious happens with the information. In the case of Karen Owen, the victim sent an email to a few close friends that contained a PowerPoint with explicit details about her sexual encounters with male students at Duke University. One person forwarded the PowerPoint, and it didn't take long for something that was only meant for a few sets of eyes to go viral. It is still unclear who is at fault for the backlash that Karen Owen had to face, because of the many people involved with the process of making the PowerPoint go viral.

For more information see, Uniqueness of Computer Ethics and Uniqueness Debate.

Doxing

Main Article: Doxxing

Doxxing is the internet-based practice of researching and distributing personally identifiable information of an individual or an organization. While not inherently malicious, doxxing may be performed with or without the consent of the individual or organization whose information is released. The term is commonly used to refer to the exposure of an individual's physical identity through an evidenced connection with a virtual identity, which would otherwise remain anonymous. Agents performing an act of doxxing are known as "doxxers." In regards to cyberstalking, the victim's privacy may be breached through personally identifiable information uncovered by the cyberstalker. Such instances where the cyberstalker finds personally identifiable information from a victim's online identity raises ethical concerns surrounding privacy, anonymity, and virtual identity.

Cyberstalking and the law

The US Federal Anti-Cyberstalking laws include 47 USC 223, 18 USC 2261A and the Violence Against Women Act, pertain to any cyberstalking cases crossing state lines. Otherwise, state cyberstalking laws are considered.

However, not every state has a specific cyberstalking law. The National Conference of State Legislatures keeps a complete list on which states have cyberstalking, cyberharassment, and or cyberbullying laws .

Examples of cyberstalking cases

Amy Boyer

Main articles: The Amy Boyer Case.

Amy Boyer, 21, was murdered in October 1999 by Liam Youens who had stalked her online. Youens used the Internet to find information out about Boyer, such as where she lived, where she worked, what type of car she drove, and other such personal, confidential information. He even went so far to obtain her Social Security number through an agent. Youens also created two websites concerning her: one site detailed Boyer's personal information and the other detailed his plans to murder her .

Joelle Ligon

Joelle Ligon was cyberstalked for six years by James Murphy, and ex-boyfriend. Murphy sent Ligo emails from an alias email accounts that started out as unwanted and later turned pornographic. Murphy also posted Ligon’s phone number in discussion threads and chatrooms that led to Ligon getting phone calls from men asking for sex. During the time cyberstalking was not yet outlawed in Washington State, where Ligon lived and worked, so the police said there was nothing they could do. Ligon then sought help from the FBI. After a long process, Murphy plead guilty to two counts of Internet harassment .

Jayne Hitchcock

The Jayne Hitchcock incident is a case of corporate cyberstalking in which Hitchcock, a writer, claimed to be cyberstalked by a manager at Woodside Literary Agency for a number of years. Jayne Hitchcock later went on to become the president of an organization to halt cyberstalking.

United States v. Petrovic

Jovica Petrovic was convicted of four counts of interstate stalking and two counts of interstate extortionate threats after he stored a lot of blackmail and embarrassing material about his ex wife including sex tapes, nude photos, personal text messages, etc.She attempted to commit suicide in 2009; that December she broke up with Petrovic over text; he informed her of all of the things he had been saving and threatened to post all of this on the internet for her family to see if she did not remain in the relationship. In court, he argued that the interstate stalking statute violated his right to freedom of speech. This motion was denied as it was concluded, “when speech and non-speech elements are combined in the same course of conduct, a sufficiently important governmental interest in regulating the non speech element can justify incidental limitations on first amendment freedoms."

Preventing cyberstalking

There are many different ways to prevent cyberstalking from occurring:

1. Do not share private information, such as your name, birthdate, address, or social security number, in a public online space or with someone you do not know.
2. Be very careful when interacting with others online whom you have not met before. While your interactions may seem safe, you may be talking to someone who is misrepresenting themselves.
3. Do not put your credit card information or any other form of online payment into an unsecured system. While the site may look legitimate, it may in reality be a farce.
4. Change your passwords semi-regularly so as to keep your accounts as secure as possible. When creating your passwords, do not use your birthdate, dog's name, or any other piece of information that is relatively easy to find.
5. If you believe you are being cyberstalked, do not hesitate to contact the authorities. Save all conversations, transactions, and engagements with your stalker as they will be important for finding the stalker.

In popular culture

• Cyberstalker (2012) starring Mischa Barton, depicts the online harassment and stalking of a woman over the course of several years.
• MTV's Eye Candy, a television show about a blogger targeted by a cyberstalker, premiered in 2013 and was not renewed after one season.

Freeform, formerly ABC Family’s, 7 season long show, Pretty Little Liars, focused on the lives of teenagers as they face a cyberstalker that torments them into their early adult lives. The main victims, a group of five females, often receive threatening messages or emails that blackmailed them to do certain things. The cyber stalker, named “A”, remained anonymous, yet seems to know everything about the girls’ lives. A knew where they all lived, and in some plotlines, A had bugged the girls’ houses. Often times the end credits of each episode would show A hiding behind a bush taping somebody or looking at a video of one of the girls on their laptop. A is a resentful stalker as their main goal was to seek revenge on the characters.

In the popular CW show, One Tree Hill , main character, Peyton Sawyer deals with a cyberstalker in the fourth season. Peyton created podcasts narrating her life story, which she would publish online. Her cyberstalker discovered her online and became obsessed with her, meeting her under the false pretense that he was her estranged brother, which at that time, she was in search for. In the end it is revealed that he had been watching Peyton’s podcasts for years and had slowly developed an obsession for her because of her resemblance to his dead ex-girlfriend, serving as a surrogate for him.

See Also

• Cyberbullying
• The Amy Boyer Case
• Troll

External links

• Cyberstalking - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
• The National Center for Victims of Crime - Cyberstalking
• U.S. Code - 47 USC Sec. 223
• U.S. Code - 18 USC Sec. 2261A
• Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005

References

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