Cyber
World: Boon Or Bane?
Stalker’s
Lair
Stalking is a behavior that is serious,
often violent and can rocket over time. It is the act of harassing, violating
and threatening that is committed by a stalker to his/her victim. It is the
repetitive pattern of domestic violence, control and terror which usually
happens to people who know each other. For some stalkers, stalking is a
manifestation of their love, care, affection and protection but for the latter
stalkers, stalking is their way of surveying their enemy, revenge, hostility,
anger and many other more motivations that push and cause stalkers to commit
this kind of behavior. Hence, stalking is considered as a crime because of the
effects and threats it imposes to the victim more so to a society. A society
that is intensely exposed to an open environment that enables stalkers to stalk
their victims freely with the aid of technology advancements like the Internet,
Social Networking Sites and many more that enables one to track, collate
information, cross privacy bounds and monitor a target victim for there are
many ways on how to stalk. As this kind of alarming behavior exists in a
continuum, there is a growing population of stalkers and victims who experience
dangers, fears, paranoia and many other effect of stalking and this predicament
is made worst by the rise of the cyber world.
Cyberstalking
According to netforbeginners.about.com
and as stated on the website, “Cyberstalking is a very serious form of online
harassment. At one level, cyberstalking is much like cyberbullying,
as it involves the sending of repeated annoying and unwelcome messages. But
cyberstalking goes far beyond cyberbullying in terms of motivations and
tactics. Cyberstalking involves a disturbed obsession with the target, and a
perverse desire to control that target in some way, even by attacking the
target's family members. Cyberstalkers do not wish to just torment someone for
an adolescent power rush... stalkers want to force the target into some kind of
submission, and are willing to involve other targets to achieve that disturbed
result.”
According to Wikipedia, Cyberstalking
is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk
or harass
an individual, a group, or an organization. It may include false
accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity
theft, threats, vandalism, solicitation for sex, or gathering information
that may be used to threaten or harass. Cyberstalking is often accompanied by
realtime or offline stalking. Both are criminal offenses. Both
are motivated by a desire to control, intimidate or influence a victim. A
stalker may be an online stranger or a person whom the target knows. He may be
anonymous and solicit involvement of other people online who do not even know
the target.
Who and What is a Cyberstalker?
Cyberstalker
is a stalker who stalks in any form of SNS. Gill (2013), said that
cyberstalking is like a cyber bullying in terms of motivations and tactics.
They use the internet to attack their victim. They locate their victim and
survey them in a long period of time then if they know very well their victim
already, they tend to harass them emotionally and criminally manipulate their
victims.
Cyberstalkers like to use email,
Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, text messaging, and sexting as their primary tools. They sometimes use
online dating services, discussion forums, and mobile phone devices to stalk
their prey. If the stalker is a sophisticated user, he/she will use many of
these means in combination.
Cyberstalkers commonly have four objectives:
Cyberstalkers commonly have four objectives:
1.
locate,
2.
surveil,
3.
emotionally
harass,
4.
and
criminally manipulate their prey.
In
some cases, the cyberstalker will prey on their target's family, friends, and
coworkers to attack their target. (http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/c/f/What-Is-Cyberstalking.htm)
- Stalking Motivations
- Boredom
- Anger
- Jealousy
- Obsession
- Information
- Revenge
- Hate
- Violence
- Sexual interests
- Infatuation
- Attachment
- Attempts for reconciliation
Establishment of close relationship
Cyberstalkers are regular people with very irregular psychological problems. The truly frightening part is that cyberstalkers can be random: you do not need to know the person to become their target. Some cyberstalkers will just choose random targets online.
Effects and Consequences of Stalking
Stalkee or the victims are observed or disturbed by their stalkers. Stalkers violate the rights of their victim from getting personal or even private information that they tend to spread if they can’t get what they want. Stalkers are unpredictable when they are stalking. They outrage the limitations of privacy of their victim. That is why Stalking has designated penalties that are to bestowed upon a stalkers violations.
If the stalker knows the cellular number or the email address of his/her victim they tend to send unwanted text messages, letters, emails and voicemails and constantly calling and hanging up. Technology, Internet to be specific, has a big factor or a big help to the stalker to gather personal information, they use social networking sites and technology to track and monitor their victim’s accounts. Internet can help for an easily access by stalkers, there is also a personal way to gather details like what Personal stalking where the stalkers will survey their victims house, workplace and school. (http://www.loveisrespect.org/is-this-abuse.types-of-abuse/what-is-stalking)
According to Mechanic, victims of stalking experience psychological stress like fear and safety concerns, depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, leaves/absences or worse not even returning to workplace or school and homicide are some of the consequences or effects of stalking to victims.
What to do if someone is cyberstalking you?
If one feels that he/she is being stalked, he/she must know their stalker then report and get a protection order from the police and keep them safe. Present important evidence like text messages, voice mails, videos, letters and emails you will also need the people who witnessed the stalking and or harassing. Once they get a protection order; your stalker may be convicted or arrested if they come near you. (http://www.loveisrespect.org/is-this-abuse/types-of-abuse/what-is-stalking)
Different states have their own classification of offenses in stalking. Hence, it is a kind of crime that violated the privacy of others. Some states say that stalking is felony upon first offenses while on the other hand it is worse on second offense. (http://www.victimofcrime.org/our-programs/stalking-rsource-center/stalking-information, 2012)
If you want to read more about Cyberstalking visit the sources below:
