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Exposing cyberstalking
By Michael Lalonde (Ontario Daily Bulletin)

Cyberstalking Explained

What is "Cyberstalking?" 
Because cyberstalking is a form of stalking, it may be helpful to start 
by defining "stalking." While there have been a number of definitions 
offered in the literature and laws, the common elements of the 
definitions seem to be:

(1) repeated and unwanted behaviors whereby one individual attempts to 
contact another individual, and 
  
2) the behavior causes the victim to feel threatened or to feel some 
sense of fear or dread. 
Most definitions do not require explicit threats of harm or violence. Nor 
is there any requirement that the stalker intends to cause the victim to 
feel threatened (even though some laws do require intent for 
criminalization of the behavior).

Consistent with the above, the term "cyberstalking" refers to situations 
where someone pursues and repeatedly attempts to contact someone via the 
Internet -- via E-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, bulletin boards, 
web-based discussion fora, IRC, and/or usenet groups -- and the pattern 
of behavior results in the victim feeling threatened. Note that repeated 
unwanted emails do not necessarily constitute "cyberstalking," because 
there is a difference between "harassment" and "stalking." The generally 
accepted standard is whether the communications are such that "any 
reasonable person" would experience fear or dread.

As used here, cyberstalking and cyberharassment may also involve signing 
the individual up for mail lists so that they receive objectionable 
material or attempting to gain control of the victim's computer or 
hardware (through "cracking" or transmission of trojans).

What distinguishes "cyberstalking" from "cyberharassment" are the pursuit 
and fear aspects: the cyberstalker follows the individual around the 
Internet (e.g., signing up for mail lists that the individual is likely 
to be on, reading and/or posting to usenet groups the individual 
frequents, using web sites to research and obtain personal information 
about the individual, etc.), sending email to the person or posting about 
the person -- and as a result of that behavior, the individual 
experiences fear or some sense of dread or threat.

Not all cyberharassers engage in cyberstalking. Similarly, not all 
cyberstalkers may turn to offline harassment or stalking. Although the 
traditional legal definitions of "stalking" generally incorporate some 
threat of violence to the target or the target's family, instances of 
cyberstalking where there has been no clear threat of violence but 
evidence of "real life" harassment should also be treated seriously as we 
currently have no data to help us predict whether a cyberstalker will 
turn violent. All we can do is predict based on offline stalking patterns.

Michael Lalonde's column can be found weekly in the Ontario Daily Bulletin
HE may be reached at extension 226

California