CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Harassment through the Internet, or "cyberstalking," is bringing new challenges for law-enforcement and legislative bodies.

"As more and better technology becomes available to ordinary citizens, stalkers can take advantage of the tremendous power of the Web as well as increased access to personal information," Amy C. Radosevich wrote in an article published in the University of Illinois Law Review.

The same technology used to harass people offers the stalker almost impenetrable anonymity. "In cyberspace, stalking and harassment may occur not only via e-mail, but through news groups, bulletin boards and chat rooms," said Radosevich, a third-year law student and the executive editor of the UI law journal.

Cyberstalkers also can dupe other Internet users into unintentional harassment by posting inflammatory messages to a bulletin board using the name, phone number and e-mail address of the victim. "Each subsequent response to the victim, whether from the actual cyberstalker or others, will have the intended effect on the victim, but the cyberstalker's effort is minimal."

Although nearly all states prohibit following a person without his or her consent, very few laws cover e-mail threats as a form of stalking. By the very nature of e-mail, harassment can come from a great distance -- and with great intensity -- without involving a prohibited "physical threat" or verbal pattern of conduct.

Despite growing evidence of cyberstalking on college campuses and in urban areas, Internet service providers have done little to protect their users from harassing electronic messages. At the very least, Radosevich wrote, an industrywide code of conduct should be developed that has clear policies prohibiting cyberstalking and requires users to supply verifiable identity and location.

On the national level, an attempt to include harassing e-mails under the telephone harassment statute failed in Congress. Another step backward took place last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a section of the Violence Against Women Act, providing a civil remedy for victims of
gender-motivated violence, was unconstitutional.

Recent data suggest that more than 1 million Americans are stalked each year. About 80 percent are women who, in a typical case, are followed and sometimes threatened by an ex-husband or
ex-boyfriend. Most victims are ordinary citizens, while about 20 percent are celebrities pursued by obsessed fans.

"As in off-line stalking, in many online cases the cyberstalker and the victim had a prior relationship, and when the victim attempts to end the relationship the cyberstalking begins," Radosevich said, adding that someone afraid to harass an acquaintance in person or over the telephone "may have little hesitation in sending a threatening e-mail message."

---University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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