HUFFINGTON POST - Apr 11 - According to a new study by the British Electronic Communication Harassment Organization (ECHO), cyberstalking has become more prevalent than real-world stalking. Researchers surveyed 250 participants between the ages of 14 and 74, and considered harassment that occurred via social networks, email and mobile phones. According to the study, most of the victims' ages ranged from 20 years old to 39 years old. Only 4% reported being stalked by a former partner, compared with victims of face-to-face stalking, where around half are former partners. Victims told researchers that stalkers commonly used social networks as channels for harassment and intimidation. 20% of victims said they were tracked through their social networks, compared to 4% who said they were targeted via dating sites.
by Catharine Smith
See full article at Huffington Post
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch
This is why people shouldn't get all their data up on facebook for the whole world to see. Also I think children should be thought about the risks that can come from posting everything in the social networks, maybe even in school.
I reviewed a couple of german dating websites on http://www.online-dating.blog.de regarding the problem of stalkers. The good thing about the dating sites is that the most of them have staff to deal with such things and ban people that start getting crazy. This is not the case with social networks.
Posted by: Online Dating Expert | Apr 14, 2011 at 09:03 AM
Very few report stalking incidents. No wonder these creeps took to the social networks. More and more networks allow their users to post videos, images, blogs, articles about themselves and that's instant material for any cyberstalker out there. The victims will usually try to break any form of contact with these stalkers but that's not recommended as they will try and find means of stalking you, maybe even in real life. There are some companies out there that offer reputation management and other services that deal legally with these kind of incidents. They are professionals and they know how to handle these creeps appropriately.
Posted by: Versie | Apr 15, 2011 at 08:09 AM