Cyber-stalking is becoming a larger problem with the push of social networks and “is a form of repeated harassment involving the Internet and electronic communication methods such as email, online chat and instant messaging” (Cross, 2014, page 164). A cyberstalker targets a specific victim across the Internet to allow them to anonymously send threatening messages without detection. There are four types of cyber-stalking, namely “harassing, threatening, intimidating and impersonating profiles”. The four different types of Cyber-Stalking are stepping stones, the more involved the stalker is, the more difficult he will try to infiltrate the victim's life using any means necessary. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first is Harassment, the concept of harassment is subjecting the victim to aggressive pressure and intimidation. This is a common technique that stalkers use to interact with the victim and make them feel threatened. Stalkers would do this by writing hostile messages on a public forum such as the victim's Facebook page. “Offline, harassers must target one individual or a handful at a time; online, images, comments and memes can be spread across dozens of accounts and websites in the blink of an eye.” As an offline stalker has a victim while an online stalker allows them to further harass the victim to do what they want. This is a starting point for stalkers, they could be the ones writing rude comments about a traumatic event where they threaten physical and emotional violence. This would happen repeatedly until the victim feels there is no other option but to conform to what the stalker wants; at this stage it would be for the intimate photos and the gratification of knowing they are ruining someone emotionally. This first phase could also be considered cyberbullying and the situation can get significantly worse for the victim during the other phases. The second form of cyber-stalking is threat, threatening behavior is interpreted as an expression of a threat from something hostile or violent. Stalkers may have a personal relationship with their victims and therefore have easy access to chat stories and intimate images sent in confidence. These are then used to threaten and harass victims into doing what they want so that the stalker can gain gratification. “Threatening communications and violent behavior can use a fear appeal strategy to change a potential attacker's attitudes” (Chauvin, 2011, p. 54). If the stalker is able to instill fear in their victim, their attitude may change to gain more information and thus gain more fear from the victim. One of the main problems of Cyber-Stalking and the ideal of the threat is the ease of being able to take screenshots of conversations, this means that stalkers can keep personal images and private messages against victims, some social networking sites are trying to fight this. The large social networking app, Snapchat, is at the forefront of the fight against unwanted screenshots, within Snapchat you can take screenshots of stories that others have posted and it will not notify the user when they choose to put the image in their story as public. However, if it is an individual conversation, the user will be informed. The third form of cyber-stalking is intimidating. The stalker would intimidate the victim by making them feel scared or afraid of what the stalker might do. “The cyber stalker truly believes that a relationship exists even if the, 6(2), 142-161.
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