In the textbook,'Composing Cyberspace' by Richard Holeton, there is an entire chapter called 'virtual community.' In this chapter we find the stories of several people who have found some sort of community through the Internet Chat Rooms. They tell of a sense of belonging, caring and other characteristics found in real life communities. John Perry Barlow draws several analogies between cyberspace and a real farming town where he grew up. Cyberspace is a place where you can feel that you fit in, where people get to know you and your family and where you all look out for each other. However, there are more and more reports of offensive and/or harmful behaviour on the part of a small handful of users similar to the harm done by real people in the real world. Julian Dibble has an article in the above textbook named 'A Rape in Cyberspace.' This is an example of extreme behaviour to be sure, but it happened. More common is the practice of stalking, which is common to the stalking that happens in 'real life.' We are going to discuss stalking; whether it has the potential to be harmful, or merely offensive, and what can be done to stop it, if anything.
In class we had a discussion on the topic of cyberstalking. This consists of a stalker following a user from chatroom to chatroom on the Web, and sometimes following the same user to other sites. One girl in our classroom reported having had the experience of being stalked at one time and further told that it made her feel vulnerable, unsafe and angry, all at the same time. These are exactly the same type of emotions that people report feeling when they are being stalked in the actual world. This by itself is offensive. It is legally an offense in the real world, precisely because it causes an innocent person to feel persecuted and unsafe.
Cyberstalking is offensive but can it be harmful as well? There are different types of harm, and I believe that cyberstalking can be harmful in several ways. First of all there is emotional harm. If someone no longer feels free to use the Internet, if they feel harrassed, and if a stalker is making them feel that way, then emotional harm has been done by the stalker. In the virtual world people can assume any identity they choose, and some people identify very closely with their fictional on-line personna's. Thus, if any harm comes to their characters, they feel it personally.(Holeton, p87), if someone is stalking their on-line character, they may feel personally threatened. This can be harmful to their own phyche, or even to their self esteem if they have invested enough emotion into their personna's on-line. Then there is the possibility of physical harm. It is common knowledge through many media articles, that a hacker can find out who is behind any on-line user. If that is true, then this stalker can find an address and change his stalking patterns from the Internet to real life. There is also the possibility that the stalker is already aware of the other users true identity. If stalking does change from cyberspace to actual space then, at least the potential for real physical harm is possible.
This begs the question, 'If cyberstalking is offensive and possibly harmful, what if anything can we do about it?' 'Should we do anything about it?' At the moment, anyone can do anything they want to on the Internet. They can express their views, no matter how unorthodox, and explore their emotions with others. They are free to experience things they may be unable to in the real world, and develop any on-line personality they want to. But what happens when their personalities are harmful to others? If everything posted on the Internet had to be monitered, it would severely limit the freedoms mentioned above that so many people treasure, not to mention the impossibility of policing the literally innumerable number of sites already existing, and the hundreds coming on-line daily. This would also cause a delay between the time you posted something, and the time it actually showed up, which would impede freeflow conversation and totally eliminate real time chat. This, then, is an undesirable solution.
If someone is warned time and time again that their behaviour on-line, would it be possible to stop them from using the Internet? At this time, I don't think so. Because a user does not have to use their real name, and because access is available from so many sources, it would be impossible to know if someone logging on is a person who has previously been banned. In the case of the rape mentioned earlier, the rapist was banned from that particular MOO, but showed up using a different name shortly afterwards. I think the only way to enforce such evictions would be if every user had a microchip embedded into their hands or foreheads so that wherever they logged on, they would immediately be recognized and booted back off. This is a state of affairs that I, for one, never wish to see.
Another possiblity is having a command available whereby any user can remove another user that they see as stalking them, or annoying them in some other way. On the surface this sounds good, a stalkee could remove the stalker on their own, thus removing any potential offence or harm before it really started. However, think of the abuse such a command could endure. An innocent person, who accidently followed a user from one chat room to another could find themselves being removed by an oversensitive ego. This could also lead to people removing others because of personality conflicts or prior problems. Zealots could remove any person who express views different from their own. Chaos could follow.
The last solution I am going to suggest in this paper is the idea of a central registry whereby every server posts a list of people banned because of innapropiate behaviour. Maybe everyone should have to give their S.I.N.numbers before they log on. Then there would have to be a penalty possibly a fine, if they are caught logging on. If anyone is caught letting a banned person using their computer then they could be banned also. If this seems unfair, it is no different than lending your car to someone who drives it while impaired - you lose your car for a period of time. Like the impaired driver, the Internet stalker should lose priviledges for a set period of time, and then be given another chance. While there are great gaps where stalkers could slip through using this system, I think it is the best one I have been able to come up with.
In conclusion cyberstalking is offensive and has the potential to be harmful. There should be some method in place whereby stalkers can be censored and removed if necessary, but finding such a method is difficult. Cyberspace is an example of technology advancing so fast, that we are all left running in circles trying to find some way of policing it, so that its users can be feel safe, and yet unfettered while using it. There are many possible solutions to this problem, but they are all fraught with problems of their own.
WORKS CITED
Holeton, Richard. Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age. The McGraw-Hill companies, Inc. Stanford University, U.S.A. 1998