Cyber-Stalking

Legal & Professional Issues in Computing

Faculty of Informatics
&
Computer science

Year 2 After Prep

Aya Mohamed Hisham 109331

Ever since the use of the internet spread widely and became more common, ethical

and legal issues of a unique type appeared to the surface. Then, due to the increase of the

offensive and even criminal acts committed through electronics with the misuse of

technology, laws were issued to fight this different type of crimes. One of many is cyber-

stalking, which is not a physical crime in act but rather a psychological crime that has its

many causes and its harmful effects. Cyber-Stalking is illegal in most countries and stalkers

should not be tolerated because they harm their victim socially and psychologically.

Up till now, there is no universally accepted definition for cyber-stalking; according

to cyber angles, cyber-stalking is generally defined as the use of technology by a person, such

as the internet, e-mail, and mobile phones to track and harass another person (CyberStalking,

2008). Nowadays, cyber-stalking is considered to be more common than physical-stalking,

based on Jayne Hitchcock, the president of Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA), he stated

that “according to Internet World Statistics on December 31st, 2000 there were 360,985,492

Internet users, and as of February 12th, 2010 that number has grown to 1,733,993,741

representing an acceleration of 380.3%, so it is pretty clear the internet is still growing and

internet harassment is not likely to lessen in the foreseeable future.”(Dee Andersson, 2010).

The WHOA research also showed that the online growth of the harassment rose from

40.5% to 60% between 2004-2005, dropped in 2006, increased to 55% in 2007, and then

recorded a major jump to 71% in 2008 (Cyberstalking Statistics, 2009). These statistics shows that

over the years cyber-stalking and online harassments are a very dangerous habits that forms a

major and an increasing threat to community.

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 Talking about cyber-stalking does not mean there is no physical contact with the

victim, sometimes the stalking goes beyond the internet. The issue then is more complicated;

playing with someone’s mind by threating and frightening them, makes him/her feel fear as

their privacy is threatened, which, in some cases, takes more time to be recovered than

regular stalking. Because in most cases of cyber-stalking the perpetrator plays on the victim’s

social and psychological state, in that case it takes a lot of time, could be years for the victim

to get cured and restore his/her normal life (Investigator, 2009).

There are different types of cyber-stalker; the first type is the Delusional Stalker. This

type of stalkers suffers from untreated mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia, and

borderline personality disorder. The second Type is the Intimate Stalker, who is the internet

stalker whom cannot accept that his/her partner left them, and that their relationship has

ended, then accordingly he begins to track the partner through the Internet. Another common

type is the Vengeful Stalker, which is the most dangerous type of stalkers, as they are more

appropriate to take their online obsessions further to the real world. Also this type of stalker

is not limited to obsessive stalking techniques, or sexually explicit harassment. Finally there

is the Trolling Stalker, who often posts violent statements to their victims (Networking_news,

2009).

So, why do stalkers stalk their victims? There are many reasons for that, but there are some main

reasons. Cyber-stalkers are often driven by revenge, hate, anger, jealousy, obsession or mental illness.

While a cyber-harasser may be motivated by some of these feelings, often the harassment is mainly

driven by the desire to frighten or embarrass the victim of the harassment. (Cyberstalking and Harassment

FAQ, Wiredsafety.org )

Stalkers usually stalk their victims in seek of vendetta or revenge. They are often

convinced that their victims deserve their attention because usually they he committed a great

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wrong, and also usually it is done to the stalker himself, therefore they think they should be

punished for their actions. People who feel this threat should report to their local police or

any law enforcement organization, taking any chat logs or e-mails with them as evidence.

(Cyberstalker Profile, Wiredsafety.org) (Definition, Wiredsafety.org)

Another very common cause of stalking is love-obsession, where the victim might not

even know the stalker. It usually happens with famous persons people such as actors or

singers. It is a very dangerous form of stalking as it is perceived by mentally unstable people.

This kind of stalking led to the murder of Rebecca Shaffer the actress, and the repeated

harassment of Brad Pitt. Love obsessional stalking also takes place online when people form

a casual friendship with each other online. When one wishes to withdraw from this

relationship the other person might become obsessional and harass the other with emails.

"Cyberstalker Profile." Wiredsafety.org. Web.

In addition, a different type of causes is the one driven by someone’s ego, where

stalkers are just trying to prove that they can terrorize other people. Their victim is randomly

chosen from online chats or from social networks. (Cyberstalker Profile, Wiredsafety.org)

In general, Cyber-stalking is malicious in nature which means the stalker intends to

hurt and terrorize his victim. However, not all Cyber-stalking is malicious. In cases of "love

obsession" Cyber-stalking, the stalker has no visible intent to harm his victim but his actions

may be unpleasant and cause them great inconvenience, annoyance, fear or distress.

(Definition, Wiredsafety.org)

Although cyber-stalking is not a traditional way of harassment, and its medium is only

an electronic device, it has as many effects as any other type of crimes. The studies showed

that the majority of the victims their age are between 18 and 29. Not only that, but studies

also that women are targeted with a ratio of approximately 90% to be victims of cyber-

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stalking (Angela Maxwell 2001: 16). In general, most of the victims are threatened by both social

and psychological effects.

On one hand, a harassed person could have their reputation condemned either

electronically through blogs, websites, or rather social networks, which will have a great

influence on their social and work environments. On the other hand, psychological effects

vary depending on the type of the harassment, and on the type of victim. Depression, anxiety,

and sleeping disorders are the highly rated effects of cyber-stalking (Cyber-stalking, 2008) also

the increasing of alcohol consumption is a possible risk to the victim (Angela Maxwell, 2001: 16).

In all cases psychological effects of cyber-stalking is not less serious than those of traditional

stalking, in fact sometimes they could cause more damage to the victim.

Since the rate of harassments using electronic devices and median is in constant

increasing, and also considering the serious damaging effects of cyber-stalking and similar

crimes, it was a clear indication that laws should be constructed in order to fight this

phenomenon and prohibit it. An act of terrorizing human privacy is surly considered as an

invocation to humans right, and that is a crime for which law should state clear and strict

penalties, in addition to that, the law should be perfectly specific in defining the crime itself

at what are the factors contributing in committing such a crime.

During the Council of Europe in Budapest in 2001, a convention was made that states

what is cyber-stalking and how could it be identified in order to form clear measures to what

should be an indication to start specific criminal investigation at the national level. This

convention is known to be the Convention on Cybercrime, during which those measures

where defined, like “Offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of

computer data and system” (Council of Europe, 2001) including data and system interference,

illegal access and illegal interception of data, and the misuse of devices. Furthermore,

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computer-related offences as well as content related offences measures were specified

including forgery and fraud committed through computers, and also offences related to child

pornography are considered to be intolerable crimes that are confronted with law enforced

punishments. (Council of Europe, 2001)

Many other laws were made in other countries in an attempt to fight cyber-stalking

and minimize the effects of such an act. In contribution to that, many legal organizations

were established to be the connection between victims and law enforcement departments

around the globe. These organizations or centres receive reports of cyber-stalking cases, and

they either take legal actions or report to a higher law enforcement organization. They also

provide the help to assist the victim in dealing with the situation or help them overcome the

problems caused by cyber-stalking.

All in all, cyber-stalking is a crime through which the victim’s privacy and basic

human rights are invoked, motivated by certain causes, have its harmful effects on its victims,

forbidden by law, and its perpetrator is penalised according to laws both nationally and

internationally with no tolerance policy.

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References:

"Cyberstalker Profile." Wiredsafety.org, retrieved from

http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/stalker.html

"Definition." Wiredsafety.org, retrieved from

http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/definition.html

"Cyberstalking and Harassment FAQ." Wiredsafety.org, retrieved from

http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/csh1.html

‘Convention on Cybercrime’ (2001, June 23), Budapest, Council of Europe, retrieved May 1,

2011, from http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/185.htm

Angela Maxwell (2001) Cyberstalking, Auckland University.

‘Cyber-stalking’ (2008), West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services,

retrieved May 1, 2011, from http://www.fris.org/Sections/05-Stalking/5.02-

Cyberstalking.html

“CyberStalking / Harassment”, CyberAngels.org (2008), retrieved from

http://www.cyberangels.org/security/stalking.html

“Dee Andersson”, (2010), Cyberstalking Statistics Press, retrieved from

http://netcrimes.blogspot.com/2010/03/who-2009-cyberstalking-statistics-press.html

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“Cyberstalking Statistics”, (2009), retrieved from

http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/44081687.html

“Investigator”, (2009), Potential Effects of Cyberstalking, retrieved from

http://cybertaskforcepi.blogspot.com/2009/08/potential-effects-of-cyberstalking.html

“Networking_news”, (2009), Cyber Stalking - Six Types of New-Aged Internet Stalker,

retrieved from http://www.bukisa.com/articles/147700_cyber-stalking-six-types-of-new-

aged-internet-stakler