The Internet has many advantages. It has connected us to the world while creating a social network that has expanded verbal communication with many throughout the world. It also has many disadvantages in that it has limited the amount of time spent outdoors, our creativity, and resulted in a form of harassment never seen before; cyber bullying.
Today many are up in arms over cyber-crime, but authorities are at a loss as to how to keep up with the pace of criminals who are utilizing this means of communication to steal identities, post false entries, and just, plain harass individuals to the point where they are either embarrassed, harmed, or suffer financially from this type of bullying. This often happens with children who are less capable of dealing with this type of behavior than adults who are willing to take action to stop it.
This type of criminal activity can take many forms. Many include emails which are sent repeatedly, while others can contain threats of violence, remarks that are hateful, comments containing sexual innuendos, causing embarrassment by posting false information, or even soliciting the help of others to gang up on someone. This has become especially problematic in schools where students have cell phones that tie them to various Internet social networking sites.
Unfortunately, cyber-bullies love to release personal information that will lead others to the real names, work or school sites, or addresses of victims. They also love to defame and ridicule the target and may also threaten them with harm. Activities bullying others can start as young as 2nd grade and many boys initiate this activity early in life more than girls do who take over beginning about middle school. These are all illegal activities and, when caught, carry significant legal consequences.
There are ways to stop this type of harassment. One of the easiest is to avoid sites where bullying is occurring. Additionally, changing accounts and phone numbers will often curtail harassment. However, to end this type of behavior it is important that the cyber-bully be caught. The fastest way to catch a miscreant is by identifying the IP address they are using to initiate the contact.
Many sites use IP tracking which can not only track the exact location of the bully, but also provide the personal information required to prosecute them. Some of these sites include percise-ip-search.info/37/index.py which is a system that back-tracks web-based information.
For many, after a bullying incident they find it is very difficult to remove information once it has been placed on website programs even if it is defamatory. Nude photos, personal information, and slanderous allegations often find their way onto various social networking sites which, although have policies against such postings, do little to remove this type of material. For the victim it may take years for it to fade into cyber-space.
Fortunately, for victims legislation is being enacted to stiffen penalties against this type of criminal behavior and, in fact, there have already been convictions. As technology continues to open new possibilities for users, everyone needs to be aware that they and their children are becoming increasingly vulnerable cyber-crimes. Therefore, precautions should be taken when going online.