Cyberstalking 'more dangerous than traditional bullying'

[Jazzy]

Victims of cyberstalking suffer more than victims of 'traditional' bullying, research shows.



The inability to escape from the 24 hour online world and the public nature of threats posted on the internet make being bullied electronically more intense, it was claimed.



The research also found that four out of ten women have suffered electronic harassment after dating online and 20 per cent of online stalkers use social networking to stalk their victims.



Addressing the American Psychological Association's Annual Convention, Elizabeth Carll said: Increasingly, stalkers use modern technology to monitor and torment their victims, and one in four victims report some form of cyberstalking, such as threatening emails or instant messaging.



Victims may feel stress, anxiety, fear and nightmares, as well as enduring eating and sleeping difficulties, she said.



Dr Carll, of the APA Media Psychology Division, It is my observation that the symptoms related to cyberstalking and e-harassment may be more intense than in-person harassment, as the impact is more devastating due to the 24/7 nature of online communication, inability to escape to a safe place, and global access of the information.



Read rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...more-dangerous-than-traditional-bullying.html



Have you ever been a victim of cyberstalking?

 

[Evil Eye]

Nope.

No social networks to be bullied on for me. I hardly ever read my email. There're only a couple forums (that I frequent) where I don't have the power to remove posts...

I think I'm good.

 

[Sinon]

lol The inability to escape from the 24 hour online world Funny, I'm pretty sure computers can be turned off. Some people take the internet far, FAR too seriously.

 

[Chatsie]

Last I heard, you can't be physically attacked and beat up online.

I wonder how many victims actually make it easy for others to

stalk and harrass them by posting personal info online.



While I do feel sorry for those who do fall victim to online

harrassment, I do think that the answer to prevention is

stay away from the sites where you are having trouble. It's

much easier to get away from it online than it is offline.



Kids who get bullied at school can't just 'stay away' to avoid

the beatings and other bullying they get.

 

[McConnaughay]

Kind of, when I was running HTWC, which was my first forum, somebody said he'd merge with me but I declined which provoked for him to spam up my inbox on that forum before deciding to make an account on my website with an altered name, and he utilized a proxy for registry. Eventually, he made us this horrendous banner but it was the start for us and we didn't actually have a very good banner so we used it, but one day he logged in not using a proxy and it was revealed to me that he was the guy that I had talked to in the past and I banned him. Later, he remade an account and sent me a lawsuit for still using his banner unless I unbanned him, which I didn't take seriously, but considering that I was nine years old and didn't really know the rules, I wasn't sure. The next day, I come on and there's ten new accounts made on my website and my forum's discussion is banned with hundreds of topics of spam. I worked around that, then the guy made a forum called HTWC and said that fairly the person who gets an actual domain for the site should be the one that gets to keep the name. I left for a couple of months, and really learned how idiotic of me to allow for a troll to get to me, and moved on. Six years later, I still get messages from time to time from the guy, and even whenever I block him, he makes a new account.

 

[Sinon]

Kids who get bullied at school can't just 'stay away' to avoid

the beatings and other bullying they get.

Or in my case, break the bully's arm.