I'm starting get sick of facebook. Sure its nice to stay in touch with all of my friends, but the web of interconnectivity is starting to make me a little worried. Recently, I have heard of a few local cases of women being harassed by former boyfrineds via facebook. The question, and we have discussed this in class, is whether or not this type of behavior is a violation of a restraining order. It gets a little stickier when the harassment comes from a made up accounts, created for the sole purpose of stalking and harassing others. How can you prove that your ex-spouse is posting comments on your wall when he is doing it through one of his family members accounts? Is it just me, or is the internet getting too intrusive?
So with this in mind, I am thinking about internet harassment as my paper topic. I need to find other websites besides facebook, thedirty.com, and myspace to research. If any body has happened to read this, and knows of other intrusive websites, please feel free to comment! Thanks
I think with the fast pace change of everything internet and the growing trend of "e-stalking" (I might have made up that term, but feel free to use it:) lawyers, prosecutors, and law enforcement in general will just have to learn new tactics to catch the "bad guys." Someone posted on my blog a couple days ago about a website called spokeo.com. It gathers all your information including addresses, phone numbers, family, pictures, job, etc. You have to pay for most of this information, but it still comes down to the fact that anyone can get it. I don't know if that is the type of website you're looking for since it's not really a social network, but it is intrusive and the information is easily attainable by any stalker out there. This should be an interesting paper topic!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this is the route you want to take in your paper Bob, but have you ever thought about dating sites. I have friends that have profiles up and even one of my best friends is marrying a man she met from one of the free sites, but there is also the other extreme. These sites can also be used to harass, bully, stalk. Especially sites such as PlentyofFish where anyone can put up a profile and send messages to whoever they want. Just figured it was another area you may want to explore.
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