Volume X, No. 2, 2009 640 Issues in Information Systems CYBERSTALKING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF STUDENTS AT A MID-ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY Karen L. Paullet, Robert Morris University, paullet@rmu.edu Daniel R. Rota, Robert Morris University, rota@rmu.edu Thomas T. Swan, tswan@da.allegheny.pa.us =============================================================== ABSTRACT The Internet has become a medium for people to communicate locally or globally in the course of business, education and their social lives. The increase use of the Internet has created an impact on the number of online harassing/cyberstalking cases. This exploratory study of 302 undergraduate and graduate students at a mid-Atlantic university found that 13% of students were a victim of cyberstalking. This study argues that cyberstalking and harassment will only decrease when the extent of the problem is fully understood and potential victims and law enforcement understand the protections necessary under the law. Keywords: cyberstalking, stalking, online harassment, electronic communication INTRODUCTION The Internet has become a medium for people to communicate locally or globally in the course of business, education and their social lives. The Internet has made it easy for people to compete, meet a companion, or communicate with people on the other side of the world with the click of a mouse. In 2009, according to the Internet World Stats Report, 237,168,545 people used the Internet in the United States; as a result there is a concern for Internet safety [11]. The increased use of the Internet has created an impact on the number of online harassing/cyberstalking cases. Since the 1990s, stalking and harassing have become more common via the Internet. Megan Meier was a teenage girl who regularly used social network sites. Meier, a 13-year-old, became friends with a boy named Josh on MySpace. For weeks, Meier was very happy with her new online romance when suddenly Josh became angry at Meier implying that she was not very nice to her friends. The last posting by Josh to Meier read, “The world would be a better place without you” [16]. On October 17, 2006, Meier hung herself in her bedroom 20 minutes after receiving the message from Josh. Her reply to Josh read, “You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over” [16]. It was later found out that Meier was not communicating with a boy named Josh but with a 48-year-old woman named Lori Drew. Drew created a fake MySpace profile as Josh, to contact Meier in order to see what she was saying about her daughter. Drew’s online stalking of Meier led to her death. The United States Department of Justice defines cyberstalking as the “use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communication devices to stalk another person”[20]. Offline stalking is a crime with which many people are familiar. Stalking is a “repetitive pattern of unwanted, harassing or threatening behavior committed by one person against another” [13]. Stalking that involves the use of multiple individuals to stalk, harass or threaten a victim is known as gang stalking [7]. Although offline stalking acts have been reported since the 19 th Century, cyberstalking is a crime that is just being examined and reported since the late 1990s. The U.S. Attorney General stated, “stalking is an existing problem aggravated by a new technology” [20]. Similarities have been noted between offline stalking and cyberstalking cases, including the fact that “the majority of cases involve stalking by former intimates, most victims are women, most stalkers are men and stalkers are generally motivated by the desire to control the victim” [20]. Using technology to stalk a victim can include, but is not limited to, the Internet, e-mail, text messaging, global positioning systems (GPS), digital cameras, video cameras and social network sites. One of the differences between cyberstalking and offline stalking is that cyberstalkers face no geographic boundaries. A person can live in Hawaii and be stalked by a person in Italy. The Internet makes it possible for a person to be stalked virtually anywhere in the world. PURPOSE OF STUDY https://doi.org/10.48009/1_iis_2009_640-649