Cyber World Is Not Safe

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You can do just about everything online these days and stalking is no exception. As with every other industry and field, criminal activity has gone the way of the internet. Cyber stalking is now more prevalent than actual real life stalking. Stalkers are leaving behind their traditional methods of harassment and are instead opting for a more modern technique.

A study was conducted by the British Electronic Communication Harassment Organization, a part of the Bedford University. The study involved 250 people between 14 and 74 years of age. The study participants included people with different socio economic backgrounds, ethnicities and genders. The primary means of stalking that was the subject of the study included social networking sites, cellular phones and email. Of the 250 people that were surveyed, the majority of the ones that have been a victim of cyber stalking fell between the ages of 20 and 39.

The results of the study emphasize how cyber stalking is different from regular stalking. The first major difference is that cyber stalking doesn't require prior knowledge of the victim. Many internet ...
... stalkers don't know their victims on a person level. Most of victims are either strangers or acquaintances of the stalker. With real world stalking, most of the victims happen to know their stalker. The majority of people that are stalked know their stalker on an intimate level. I can only imagine that stalkers with no relationship with their victim find comfort in hiding behind a screen. Regular stalkers are usually caught because the victim can identify them.

The next distinctive feature of stalking in cyber world is that men and women are just about as likely to be stalked online. The study results show that 37 percent of males and 23 percent of females were stalked by someone. When you compare this to real life stalking, there is a drastic difference. Most of the people that are stalked in the real world are women. These women are usually harassed by their ex-husbands or boyfriends. Since cyber stalking involves strangers, women and men are more or less stalked evenly. Cyber stalking offers a veil that allows more men to be targeted. Since women are often viewed as weak and defenseless, stalking them in the open seems like an easy task. Stalking a man in public may be viewed as more risky and dangerous because of the retaliation that may take place. I believe that cyber stalkers feel more comfortable with stalking men from the safety of a gadget or device.

Most of the cyber stalking that was reported took place via social networking sites. This is an obvious revelation because of how much these sites are used by people in different age groups. Social networking sites enable users to put their information out there where all kinds of people can view it. If you allow people to know many of the details of your life, you put yourself at risk. The fact that vulnerable teenagers can log into social networking sites ought to alarm parents because they are often targeted. The study also found that most victims didn't know how their stalkers found them and what motive they had for stalking them.