Sexual Predators
People Hurting Children: Cyberstalkers and Cyberpredators - The Real Bad Guys in Cyberspace
Cyberstalking isn’t when an adult tries to meet a child offline to molest them. (That’s a luring, or a cyberpredator.) Cyberstalking is when someone harasses and stalks someone online, or uses the Internet as a means to provoke a harassment or confrontation offline. There are three different kinds of cyberstalking situations:
1.Online cyberstalking and harassment that stays online.
2.Online harassment and stalking that ventures offline or has an offline component, too.
3.Offline harassment and stalking that has an online component.
Although all are terrifying, only the offline harassment and stalking is physically dangerous. (Any offline component qualifies as offline harassment and stalking.) However, since not all states have enacted cyberstalking or harassment laws, the laws in your jurisdiction may cover only offline stalking and harassment. Cyberstalking usually occurs when a woman is stalked by a man, although a child can be targeted as well.
“Leave My Kid Alone!”— Cyberstalking and Harassment
A very famous case of cyberstalking involving a child occurred when neighbors got into a dispute and the stalker posted a message in a newsgroup announcing that his neighbor’s young daughter was interested in sex. He also gave the neighbor’s telephone number and address. Many of us are familiar with the “name on the bathroom stall wall,” but this bathroom stall is 500 million people wide. The family was forced to move, after learning that the crime amounted only to a misdemeanor and a $700 fine.
Because of this case, federal legislation was enacted to protect children from adults doing these kinds of things when sexual activities are encouraged or implicated by the harassment. Adults who are stalked in a similar manner have only the harassment and cyberstalking laws, if they exist in their state, to fall back on.
Recently a woman in California was stalked by someone who used the Internet. This was the first case prosecuted under California’s new cyberstalking law. The victim herself had never used the Internet. The stalker went online and announced in a sexual-topic newsgroup that this woman was interested in group sex with men. He also gave her address. Men showed up at her door. Luckily, they understood and left when she asked them to. But this is frightening. The Internet can be a very powerful tool when it comes to harassing someone.
