Cyberstalking—A Real Crime

@terrytee

1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country? ans: Yes, Its a crime in Bangladesh. a new law to tackle cyber crimes, with provisions for a maximum punishment of 14 years in jail for offenders.
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country? Ans: Yes,Bangladesh govt's Cyber Emergency Response Team .
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them?Ans: In my facebook account's other message inbox is fill up with shitty text, threatning text, naked picture of senders.
4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking?Ans:

Well cyber stalking is not a avoidable issue. In Bangladesh many activitist blogger killed by some crazy cyber stalker . We need to protect us. Their is no privacy in Internet now-a-days. So we cant share our personal info with public. We usually go to resturants, parlour, hotel, public places...e.t.c and post publicly on internet.we should stop giving check-ins, travelling informations. locations,phone numbers.

@terrytee Thank you for bringing this up and discussing very important points. I do believe that cybercrimes such as these are becoming more and more widespread and common (in other countries).

1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country? In the Philippines, we have a recently-passed law (just last 2012!) called the Anti Cybercrime Act. I don't think it directly penalizes stalking. The most related crime to cyberstalking is cyber identity theft, which involves, as mentioned in your post, stealing personal information of others for crimes. Unfortunately, I do not think harrassment and potential bullying is covered by this law. A more specific bill, called the Cyberstalking Bill, was introduced in the congress in 2014, but I haven't heard of any updates on the status of the bill.

2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country? There is a group assigned to monitor cybercrimes, the Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police, but I am not sure if they serve as a helpline for victims.

3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them? Fortunately, I don't. My colleagues often mention the concept of "stalking online" a lot, but they mean it in a humorous way (like following a celebrity crush on his Instagram, etc.). I haven't heard of violent aggression or assaults caused by cyberstalking in the news so far, which is, hopefully, a good sign.

4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking? There are a lot, but I think the most important thing we can do to prevent becoming victims of cyberstalking is to remember the fact that everything on the Internet is permanent. Before sharing information about ourselves, libelous or harmful ranting, going on a fight in a Facebook status, or posting a picture that can be used against us, we should remember that social media, like Facebook alone, has billions of users. Even if you only have a hundred of friends, which make up a small fraction of that number, imagine how far that little dangerous information you cannot erase will go. The effects of careless sharing may not be felt immediately. Think before you click.

So if I stalk someone in Facebook, am I a bad person?

1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country? It is a crime it is just like being stalked by omeone offline and it is kind of like cyberbullying. Stalking became a crime in 2012 in my country and cyberstalking was added to that list of being illegal when stalking became illegal here 5 years ago.
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country? The National Domestic Violence Hotline is trained to help those who are being harassed online through cyberstalking.
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them? Yes I was stalked on and offline for 2 years by an abusive ex it was awful and torture they made sure to let me know how worthless I was and how I was nothing without them and that no one would love me that only they did they made sure to contact all of the people I loved and tell them bad things about me to make me seem like the bad person when it was them they'd act like they did not know who I was just to try to get information from my loved ones and my friends and family would screenshot their conversation or take a quick photo of my ex and tell me that they were asking questions about me. I changed myour phone number, and social media they still figured out a way to find me it was dreadful. I blocked them they'd just make new pages. Until finally I was able to somehow get them to go away completely. I'm still on guard though because of them.

4.Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking? Screenshot them every time they write you, don't respond just gather up evidence so you can present it to a police and magistrate or judge when you ask for an order of protection against them, get self-defence classes you aren't sure what they're capable of and their cyberstalking can escalate and go offline and they can possibly start stalking you in the real world. Block them and create new media accounts set them to private if you can just block them completely out of your life stay strong and remember you are not any of the things your stalker might write to you in order to get you to respond to them, they're the one who's hurting you not the other way around and they are not doing it out of love anyone who loves you wouldn't abuse you by stalking and harassing you online so don't let them make you believe it's out of love.