Cyberstalked

A new study pub­lished in the Feb­ru­ary issue of Archives of Pedi­atrics & Ado­les­cent Med­i­cine has con­tra­dicted much of the com­mon advice given by inter­net safety author­i­ties. The behav­ior most likely to lead to vic­tim­iza­tion is not sim­ply shar­ing per­sonal infor­ma­tion online. Com­mu­ni­cat­ing with strangers is far more dan­ger­ous, espe­cially if the com­mu­ni­ca­tion is sexual.

Pat­tern of Behav­iors Linked to Online Victimization

…the study found that talk­ing with peo­ple only known online under cer­tain con­di­tions is asso­ci­ated with online inter­per­sonal vic­tim­iza­tion, but shar­ing infor­ma­tion is not.

“Aggres­sive behav­ior in the form of mak­ing rude or nasty com­ments or fre­quently embar­rass­ing oth­ers, meet­ing peo­ple in mul­ti­ple ways and talk­ing about sex online with unknown peo­ple were sig­nif­i­cantly related to online inter­per­sonal vic­tim­iza­tion,” they continue.

“With one in five youth who use the Inter­net report­ing an unwanted inter­per­sonal vic­tim­iza­tion in one year’s time, iden­ti­fy­ing effec­tive Inter­net safety mes­sages is an ado­les­cent health issue of great impor­tance,” the authors conclude.

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