Cyber-Stalking and Online Harassment: Internet Impact

The internet in today’s time has become the medium for individuals to communicate all over the world in the course and transaction of business, education and even in their social lives. The internet has not only made it easy for people in the task of communication but also to compete with individuals on the other sides of the world over a mouse. The progression of society along with the ever-expanding internet in this century has placed in front a way or a class of abuse which is known as Cyber-Stalking. It is of a very horrific nature that without revealing the identity, a perpetrator can be liable to cause a serious trauma over the victim. Cyber-Stalking to be put under simpler terms can be termed as the use of technology of the internet to harass a person which may or may not include monitoring a person’s online activities, threats, identity theft, date theft, etc. Cyber-Stalking has now become popular in societies then the old ways of the physical annoyance. It is a form of nuisance which has resulted towards the disturbing of victims and leaves them live in utmost terror. In the case of this stalking, the large number of victims are of women’s and teenager which are stalked by the baseless accusations, emails, instant messages, phone calls and other communication devices that are present in the scenario. In the current century, the idea of a Cyber-Stalking has been increasing rapidly and is not without any question a big threat towards the society where the world is shifting towards a more technologically advanced quality of life. In such crimes, the offender need not even leave his house and still be able to harass their target with absolutely no fear of any kind of physical violence since it is believed by them that they will not be touched physically over the cyberspace. In accordance to the Internet World Stats Report, approximately 462,124,989 are active users of the internet among from which 251,000,000 are active Facebook subscribers. With relation to the given data, the increased use of internet is leading towards the creation of an impact over the number of cases of cyber-stalking and online harassment.

Introduction

In the world full of technological advancements, the dimension of cyberspace has become more dynamic than ever and are expressed to be as exponential and undefined. The IT is always under a process of a rapid growth and now has become an essential part of lives and society. The world has undergone an IT revolution globally which has led to an unexplained increase in the users of the internet. With the revolution, new opportunity has been brought forward towards each and every individual in a differentiated area such sports, business, etc. Nonetheless, having its owns pros, the internet also comes with many cons of many unexplored nature and it has been responsible to give a large rise over novel and unique manners of crime which are referred to as the illegal acts which are performed over the internet are a termed as cyber-crime. The internet has led towards an exponential development and use of technology which have provided numerous opportunities for people’s advancement and also have been an area and a tool for the generation of the newly found areas for the tools of victimization. There is a crime within the spectre of the cyber-crime, the concept of cyber-stalking has been recently identified globally by the governments which refers to the use of any or a number of electronic communications or tracking technologies to stalk or harass another person. In the contradiction of an increased highbrow media coverage of the current and present predators over the internet, there has been in an increase over a variety of threats that are supporting the novel freedom and the opportunity of online connectivity networks.

Cyber-Stalking is defined as the repeated use of electronic communications to harass or frighten someone, for example by sending threatening emails. It can also be associated with the practice done a person by the usage of electronic communications in order to harass another person persistently. The offence of Cyber-Stalking involves the usage of means of electronic nature which includes the internet in order to stalk a person or harass a person or a group of individuals. It includes many acts such as threats, accosting someone for sex, false accusations, defamation, slander, libel, identity theft, and vandalism.

Cyber-Stalking is often and mostly used in synchrony with physical stalking as both can be related towards an expression of a want of control, intimidate or manipulate a victim. A cyber-stalker can be of different aspects as he can be a familiar person or even a complete stranger having a criminal intention. The terms “Stalking” is defined as “The crime of illegally following and watching someone over a period of time”.

Cyber-Stalking is the technological harassment which is done towards a specific individual and there can be several forms of the same which can take place including:

• Placing order for delivery in someone else’s name
• Spreading of false rumors
• Hacking of active accounts online
• Assembling the personal information of the person
• Motivating others to join in the harassment
• Building of fear or paranoia for a person.

In relation to the above stated activities, it can lead towards extreme distress for a person and can also lead towards having an impact on the career and personal relationships and also over the quality of life. It can cause a person to have a feeling of chronic anxiety which may lead the person to hamper the usual routine of his life. In many cases, it has been seen that the victims are scared to a level that they stop using any means of communications as that fear gets build up in their mind. The person who are engaged in the activities of Cyber- Stalking can use a number of methods to stalk a person on electronic mediums such as SMS, Phone Calls, etc. among which the most the common are the platforms of social media. Such platforms carry an access of the user’s personal information and many times contains the whereabouts of the person also. Cyber-Stalkers have been able to misuse the given information in order to threaten or blackmail and even physically contact the person they are targeting. Generally, the cyber-stalkers think that they are always anonymous and can stay hidden. To elaborate, the biggest strength of cyber-stalkers is that they can rely upon the anonymity which is provided by the internet that allows them to have an upper hand on the movements of their victim and stay hidden in the process. Thus, there is a huge need of tools of cyber in order to investigate the cyber-crimes and be prepared in a way to defend against such stalkers and the bring justice.

There are numerous reasons that are physiological in nature behind stalking like severe narcissism, hatred, rage, retribution, etc. Some of them are discussed below:

• Obsession & Attraction: The stalker maybe attracted towards the victim sexually or mentally as there is a very thin line between admiration & stalking.
• Jealousy: It can be taken as a very strong motive especially when it is done towards an ex-partner and their current partners.
• Erotomania: It can referred to as a kind of belief in which the stalker assumes that the victim is in love with him. It can involve sexual inclination towards someone.
• Revenge & Hate: In many cases, the victim is not the sole reason for the feeling of hatred and revenge in the mind of the cyber-stalker and the he becomes the victim of the stalker.
• Sexual Harassment: In major cases, this particular motive is said to be the most common in the crimes of Cyber-Stalking.

In relation to the above-mentioned motives, a cyber-stalker can be said an obsessed or enraged, etc. Moreover, there are three major categories of stalkers which can be differentiated as Obsessional stalkers, delusional stalkers and vengeful stalkers. It has been seen that Cyber-Stalking generally takes places with females and are stalked by men or children who are stalked by the adults. Such Cyber-Stalkers targets people who are mostly interdependent and emotionally weak or unstable in their own lives. Cyber Stalkers are the people who always count towards the secrecy which is given by the internet and permits them to stalk the target without any kind of detection. Such Cyber-stalkers are categorized in numerous ways in accordance to the usage of the information technology tools their own behavior and they can people having attributes such as Rejected Stalkers, Resentful Stalkers, Predatory Stalkers, Intimacy Stalkers and Incompetent suitors.

In the case of State of Maharashtra v. Atul Ganesh Patil which is regarded as the fastest decided case of Cyber-Stalking in which the cyber-stalker was jailed within 48 hours of arrest. In this case, a girl had filed a complaint on 1st January about an unidentified person stalking her by sending her text messages on her mobile phones. Based on the statement given by the complainant, the police arrest Atul Ganesh Patil on January 8. A day after the arrest, police submitted a charge sheet along with witnesses and evidence against Patil at Judicial Magistrate First Class at Khed. The court heard the case and sentences the accused to two years rigorous imprisonment after hearing the prosecution and defence. According to the police inspector, the convict was working as a security guard at a private company from where he obtained the mobile phone number of the complainant and started sending her text messages.

Any man who – 1. Follows a women and contacts, or attempts to contact such women to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such women; or 2. Monitors the use by a woman of the internet, email or any other form of electronic communication, commits the offence of stalking.

In the above given case, the punishment of 2 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 500/- was announced by the court presided by the Judge Y J Tamboli. The case is said to be the fastest decided case under the purview of Cyber-Stalking within 48 hours of the arrest of the accused.

Online harassment & cyber-stalking

Cyberstalking in an act committed where a person is stalked by another over the internet, cell phone or any other electronic communication. It involves the act of threats, identity threats, etc. which can be in any form of repeated offensive behavior. Online Harassment involves many things such as sexual harassment which is unwanted contact of personal nature, or other conduct based on sex affecting the dignity of men and women at work. Such act may or may not include the acts of unwelcomed verbal and physical or non-verbal conduct. In other words, if it is unacceptable, unreasonable and offensive, it can be termed to be unwanted. If such act is once rejected by the recipient, the sexual attention will become sexual harassment if it is continuous in nature. Also, a single act if it is sufficiently serious, can also constitute to be harassment.

To elaborate on problem of online harassment, it can be classified in two ways, direct and indirect harassment. The use of pagers, cell phones and email to send obscene messages of obscenities and threats and hate in order to intimidate the person. In the case of indirect harassment, it includes the usage of the internet in order to display communication of hate, threats or spreading of false rumors against the person. In such cases, the messages are posted on web pages and among chat groups and even in bulleting boards. This form of harassment is the electronic equivalent if placing pinups in a factory wall, and if the display of such material from the victim’s perspective causes offence it amounts to harassment.

In a way of general speaking, cyberstalking has now become online harassment where there is a repetition of unwanted communication being of direct or indirect nature and takes places over a period of time through more than one medium of electronic communication. The repeated communication should be unwanted by the victim and body may or may not be threatening or sexually harassing or general misinformation.