How social networking sites facilitate cyber stalking
In the past decade social networking sites have become very popular and pretty much everyone is on some sort of social networking site. Users on social networking sites range from adolescents to grandparents. Social networking sites have a lot of positive qualities to them, like; they are a good way to keep in touch with people, meet new people, and network. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Instagram, LinkedIn, and dating sites allow people to create their own personal account. Specific social networking sites like Facebook were originally designed for college students to keep in contact with friends, but younger and older people started getting involved in the sites as well. According to Nielson (2009) almost two thirds of the global online population visits social networking and blog sites, accounting for 10% of all time spent on the internet. People can then add photos, write personal information, share favorite movies, books, television shows, interesting or favorite quotes onto their page, age, sexual orientation, religious views, and birthday. Just by looking at someone's Facebook About Me section it will be like you know everything about that person because of the information they entail. People can even write on other people’s walls. People can then friend each other and be able to view their profiles whenever they want. LinkedIn (2010) claims over 65 million active monthly users worldwide, while Tagged (2010) claims over 80 million global members. Even more astounding, MySpace (2010) boasts over 100 million active monthly users worldwide. However without a doubt, Facebook (2010) is by far the standalone leader in online social networking sites. Globally, this provider this provider has more than 400 million active users (Ryns, Henson, and Fisher, 2012).
Although social networking cites sound very positive, there is also a negative outcome that can come with using social networking sites, which is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking happens more than most people know or even realize. Doyle et al. (2003) analyzed official crime data from the New York City Police Department’s cyber crimes investigation unit and reported that 42.8% of cyber crimes investigated by the unit were cyber stalking cases. Cyber stalking usually exists among adolescents and the younger generation teenagers. A national survey of 1,588 youths, 15% of respondents were victims of sexual solicitations and 4% of these transpired on online social networks. Further, 33% of youths were victims of online harassment, 9% of which could be traced to online social networking interactions (Ybarra and Mitchell, 2008). Thinking about how the cyber stalking can occur brings up many potential factors. Once you are friends with someone they have access to your entire profile. They can see your pictures, status updates, interesting facts which then gives them access to look at your profile whenever they want and how much they want. Finn (2004) found on undergraduate college students, finding that 10% of students were harassed online by known individuals and 15% were harassed by strangers. Some research has been made that a lot of times cyber stalking occurs between ex partners. After a break up a lot of the time people are sad and want to keep an eye out on what their ex is doing, so they will look at their social networking cites. According to a study by Lyndon et al. (2011), 18% of the participants in the study reported at least one attempt to publicly harass their ex-partner and/or using Facebook to vent about their ex-romantic partner and the ex-partner's new life. The study also resulted in individuals who perpetrate online through cyber obsessional pursuit behavior were almost twice as likely to write inappropriate things about an ex-partner and his/her new partner, create false Facebook pages, posting embarrassing photos, and look through ex-partner's photos to see pictures with a new partner.
Although social networking cites sound very positive, there is also a negative outcome that can come with using social networking sites, which is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking happens more than most people know or even realize. Doyle et al. (2003) analyzed official crime data from the New York City Police Department’s cyber crimes investigation unit and reported that 42.8% of cyber crimes investigated by the unit were cyber stalking cases. Cyber stalking usually exists among adolescents and the younger generation teenagers. A national survey of 1,588 youths, 15% of respondents were victims of sexual solicitations and 4% of these transpired on online social networks. Further, 33% of youths were victims of online harassment, 9% of which could be traced to online social networking interactions (Ybarra and Mitchell, 2008). Thinking about how the cyber stalking can occur brings up many potential factors. Once you are friends with someone they have access to your entire profile. They can see your pictures, status updates, interesting facts which then gives them access to look at your profile whenever they want and how much they want. Finn (2004) found on undergraduate college students, finding that 10% of students were harassed online by known individuals and 15% were harassed by strangers. Some research has been made that a lot of times cyber stalking occurs between ex partners. After a break up a lot of the time people are sad and want to keep an eye out on what their ex is doing, so they will look at their social networking cites. According to a study by Lyndon et al. (2011), 18% of the participants in the study reported at least one attempt to publicly harass their ex-partner and/or using Facebook to vent about their ex-romantic partner and the ex-partner's new life. The study also resulted in individuals who perpetrate online through cyber obsessional pursuit behavior were almost twice as likely to write inappropriate things about an ex-partner and his/her new partner, create false Facebook pages, posting embarrassing photos, and look through ex-partner's photos to see pictures with a new partner.