NPR's Cyber-Crime Series

I got a phone call from a friend this morning who said, "Turn on NPR, they're doing a program on cyber-stalking." I did. I admit I have not been listening to the radio on Sunday mornings in recent weeks because I have been meeting a friend for Sunday morning breakfasts. It snowed this morning and we whimped out which was good for me.

NPR has done a four part series in January on cyber-crime. Interestingly enough the number of hits on this blog that come from Google searches on cyber-stalking has gone up dramatically lately. I had a feeling something was up. Beginning in December 2005 I posted a series of informational blogs about the cyber-harassment I was going through most of which happened on a couple of internet message boards. There were also many posts made to this blog of a nasty and defamatory nature and I received a number of emails from various addresses accusing me of all sorts of things. Since both my business (Valentine-Design) and my avocation (Parlez-Moi Press and Parlez-Moi Blog) require me to have a substantial online presence it was not possible for me to "lay low" and hope that at it blew over. Thus I began making inquiries from various legal professionals on what steps I could take to protect myself and I posted a series of articles and resources for others experiencing the same harassment and stalking.

At the time it was not easy to find information on cyber-crime. It was a new field and the legal professionals I spoke with helped as much as they could but they themselves did not have a lot to work with. However, as time went by and the harassment continued for me new resources became available. Many, many others were going through what I was and worse. My articles received many visitors, I got a lot of emails from people asking for advice and I even spoke at a few women's group meetings. Eventually, my harassers calmed down. There are still flare-ups from time to time on message boards but I really don't worry about those. The two web sites (one message board and one blog) that contained the most virulent and nasty diatribes about me are no longer in existence and this blog has been free of the flames because Blogger now allows me to require posters to this blog to have a Google identity.

So when I heard this segment on NPR I was gratified to hear that the whole issue of cyber-stalking, cyber-harassment and other cyber-crimes is being given a great deal more attention now than it was even a couple of years ago and that resources for monitoring the stalkers and harassers has increased substantially. Why do people feel the need to behave abusively toward others --- people they may not even know --- on the internet? It is a good question and can best be answered by the simple observation that there are a lot of miserable people in the world and the only way they can feel okay about themselves is by denigrating others. They are sick but they are also ubiquitous. One of the things mentioned in the NPR story was that the internet has provided an opportunity for disturbed people to perpetrate their nastiness that they might be too cowardly to pursue in real life. In the real world they would have to be a little more aggressive about perpetrating their harassment and stalking and would run a far greater risk of being caught but in the cyber world they can sit at home, hidden behind a screen name and do their dirty work. They are pathetic people but they are also relentless people.

So I am providing a link here to the NPR series and also to an online resource I created a couple of years ago as well as to the articles in my series on this blog. If you are being harassed or stalked online you now have options and the people who are doing what they may think of as harmless entertainment are committing crimes. Be prepared.

NPR's Cyber Crime Series (audio and transcripts available soon)
Cape Ann Salon Cyber Crime Resource
Parlez-Moi Blog: Evil Happens
Parlez-Moi Blog: Malicious Intent - Evil Happens II
Parlez-Moi Blog: Hate Fans

Thanks for reading.