Social networking sites have taken certain stances to support stalking.

26/04/2010 waisitham 20 comments

The spread of social networking sites has changed every person’s ways of socializing and communicating with friends and acquaintances. Since the birth of social networking sites, it has given enormous benefits to the sphere, as it allows to keep in touch with anyone and to collaboration with others even in different geographic areas. By having the full advantages of social networking sites, a big disadvantage existed for some reasons, which is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking is referred to as online harassment or electronic stalking is defined as the offensive, threatening communication through the Internet, via e-mail, chat rooms, or instant messaging or through other electronic devices (The University of Texas at Arlington, n.d.). This paper will be examined closely for further insight on how obvious is that stalking takes place in social networking sites and shows cyber stalking is socially acceptable and typical. Further, it will take a look at the several controversial issues about social networking sites makes life easier for stalkers.

The development of social networking sites, certain behaviors tend to dominate and become typical. Facebook has been graded as a stalker-friendly tool because we enable to update friends’ ongoing status, which it is socially acceptable for having such behavior acting. Hickerson (2010) argues ‘perhaps the strangest characteristic of Facebook society is the fact that when you are on Facebook it becomes socially acceptable to be a stalker’. As the availability of Facebook News Feed feature has become a controversial issue due to its stalker-friendly feature, which its feature provides a great opportunity and an easiest way for stalkers to discover about the user’s circumstances indiscriminately. Because the Facebook users strongly protest News Feed feature and critics argue News Feed feature is a godsend for stalkers (Leyden, 2006). The issue of News Feed has clearly showed that Facebook is more of a medium for permitting to stalk due to its stalker-friendly tool. Also, Facebook users will be gradually used to socially acceptable stalking behavior in any other social networking site.

In this age of ubiquitous social networking sites, Facebook, casual “stalking” of friends and acquaintances is typical and tolerable, yet it is not implicitly encouraged (Dubow, 2007). As casual stalking is about accessing and updating any information posted by the college friends in social networking medium. Also, many college students treat Facebook as the preferred way to update friends. However, the popularity of social networking sites may create a problem for women at college campuses. In a common sense, women usually are the easiest target compares to men due to women has been considered fragile. Alison Kiss, program director for Security on Campus argues social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook has created an easier way for stalkers who target women on college (Bazar, 2007). Stalking college students is easier because majority of students post agenda or current activities on Facebook, which these are a tendency and pattern to play a part in social networking sites. Apparently, it showed that there is a higher chance of stalking students than general public. As Keith Davis, a University of South Carolina psychology professor and editor of the book Stalking: Perspectives on Victims and Perpetrators said ‘the stalking rate is higher for college students than the public.’ (Bazar, 2007) Stalkers tend to look for easy target to make their life easier in stalking the victims. In the typical mindset of viewing women ability, they are weak-willed. Hence, most victims of any type of stalking are women because women are the easy targets for stalkers especially innocent women.

Purposeful individuals in accessing social networking sites could bring into another level of social relationship in communication technology. Majority of people who they meet in social networking sites are usually interested in tracking down more about the people’ intimate details because it is easier to obtain the information as most of the information has been stated in profile. The social network medium provides free cost of obtaining any details without difficulty. There is a good real-life example how stalking can take place in social networking in the issue of family matter. When comes to a stage, youth will be facing a problem that parents desire to know their college-aged’ intimate details, such as, the parents always curious hanker after children privacy like their kids’ lifestyle, social mix, private conversation and personal details. It showed the biggest Facebook stalkers for children are the parents (Riddle, 2010). The parents can spend for few hours in sitting in front of the desktop just to monitor their child’s every move. Facebook has involved into almost everyone daily routine as a must to do thing in everyday, which means every detail goes to Facebook, as people give up their privacy for joining social networking site. For this particular advantage, it can cause stalkers to prefer social networking sites as the target for stalking. Hence, stalking takes place when the parents use social network medium as the tool for stalking their college-aged kids. Also, this is the parents’ favorite place for monitorial ‘stalking’ their children.

Indeed, the main reason of stalker has the chance of detecting some victims behaviors due to users are being unconsciousness from the threat of an obsessive stalkers. Rees (n.d.) argues the trend for social networking sites means that the age of privacy is over because has no longer had value of privacy, as people put their entire lives online, which is publicly accessible for everyone. Such as The social networking site, Twitter, is the current issue of controversial News Feed feature, due to its displays a sign of allowing stalkers. Majority of the people are acting like a status freak, non-stop checking friends’ status updates and updating own status. Alif (2009) argues that with the constant self-info are showed on the Twitter News Feed, its obviously gives a sign that stalkers are welcome. Twitter is the better ultimate stalker tool. It because of Twitter is more of micro-blogging service that users tend to shares with people their current status in very single tiny detail. For instance, SleepingTime.org automates into the process in tracking sleeping patterns of the tweets by analyzing and studying the tweets’ location and when they tend to update, hence, this data can split out a rough estimation of the time and duration of the user’s sleep (O’brien, 2010). It basically stalks tweets’ daily routine that is similar to having a surveillance to monitor the person’s schedule at home. Apparently, this application is giving stalkers a great chance for stalking tweets at the right timing. Also, its is putting every tweet under surveillance. Zukerman (2010) argues SleepingTime.org allows for stalking Tweeter addicts even more effectively. With holding such a ultimate stalker application, it is providing a contemporary software to easier for stalking.

Being a stalker with conscious or unconscious, there is potential of getting into an unnecessary trouble, such as putting oneself into jail by accused of intentionally stalking someone. When it comes to the issue of stalking a celebrity, it could end up putting oneself into a risk for being sued. Even though either with intention or without intention can lead to show the threat of serious harm sign, the celebrity definitely will taken an action to prevent any potential can lead to an assault or psychological damage to them. For instance, the case of stalking a celebrity, the 27-year-old man charge for stalking the daughter of Donald and Ivanka Trump by posting all over the Internet, as well, the man described himself in a blog posting as “ a celebrity stalker who is obsessed with Ivanka Trump” and has a longing to see her (Oliver, 2010). Apparently, there are users may claim themselves have connections with the Hollywood celebrities, it shows that these users are having attention-seeking personality and utilizing the advantages of social networking sites to achieve their objectives like their status which can help them become popular. Donath and boyd (2004) have a strong position in viewing the users with attention-seeking personality that asserted have links to celebrities or high-status people, their main objective is not to seek mutual acquaintances but to impress other people to gain more attentions. When individuals have adopted the environment of social networking sites, stalking behavior will naturally exist to any social networking users. Hence, even an individual has totally no intention to stalk; people may consider they are stalkers and ended with being sued for intentionally stalking. It causes stalking are brought up into the cyber stalking celebrity case. Celebrity are high awareness of stalking behavior in reality or cyber world, which their first priority is their own safety, hence, they are easily to recognise stalking behavior.

Nevertheless, there is a vast amount of intimate information in cyber world publicly accessible. The encouragement of frequent updated information about friend and acquaintance, in the mist of all information sharing, users has no cognizant of the possibility of stalking by anyone. To those Facebook addictions, they have already involved in stalking behavior. When comes to social networking sites, people started to adopt the culture of virtual world by learning negative behavior such as be voyeur. The existed social networking, Dubow (2007) argues that social networking sites are tantamount to voyeurism due to it trains people to be voyeurs and encourages checking their own social status update and that of other routinely. However, every social networking user can become potential victims through adapting the environment of social networking. The popularity of social networking sites like Facebook has attracted many people to join as members and sustained in an active role playing. It can also influence individuals learn negative behavior or train people of being voyeur when users are still in the process of adopting the environment of social networking, which makes users feel stalking in social networking site is socially acceptable.

Frankly, the people who disclosed whole accurate information in profile because it requires no face-to-face contact that brings easy to open and honest. Regarding about the privacy setting in Facebook, it offers the option “Friends of friends” access pages and profile. Therefore, the available of wealth of individuals’ information is almost impossible to control in the traumatically growth of social networking in cyber world. As Meehan (2009) stated that cyber stalkers could easily gain access to this intimate of personal details that feeds their obsessions and empowers their eventual access to their intended victims. This particular option is obvious and apparent to create a chance for allowing people to stalk. It shows this option is feeding the stalker addiction and desire. This has also given an easier life for stalkers. The stalking behavior exists because its option allows for sharing publicly.

As growing popularity of social networking sites, it is getting more people wish to be the centre of attention. In fact, attention is the scarce resource in the contemporary age of virtual world. Hence, the increased number of young people is getting more narcissism. Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized attention seeking and narcissism. Therefore, it causes even the young adult teenagers treat social networking sites as an attention seeking tool. According to the college students survey showed that in a national poll of college students, there is up to 57 per cent consent to people in their generation utilize social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter as the tool of attention seeking and narcissism (Jayson, 2009). The people who are having self-promotion behavior, they need people to give them self-confidence boost. Once a person has the thought of grabbing more attentions from the public, it is obvious have high potential of becoming a stalker. There is several way of determining how people are narcissistic use Facebook. The Facebook users who are considered as narcissists are more likely to select those types of glamorous, self-promoting pictures for their display profile pictures instead of snapshots (“Narcissists can,” 2008). Besides, Laura Buffardi, doctoral student in psychology and professor W. Keith Georgia said that untrained observes are potential becoming as narcissists, which observers used three main characteristics, ‘quantity of social interaction, attractiveness of the individual and the degree of self promotion’ in the main displayed photos which this is to form an impression of the individual’s personality (“Narcissists can,” 2008). As having attention seeking personality and narcissism, it will have the desire of being stalked. Therefore, they tend to provide almost real details in profile to wait for being stalked. This has caused stalking occurs in social networking medium with the useful tool provided.

In conclusion, accessible social networking technology alters communication between in a similar way when the introduction of technology devices, cellular phone. Social networking sites open the door widely for welcoming stalkers or potential stalkers to obtain intimate information for free. In the fact that there has no exact way to stop stalkers move freely around in virtual world at the moment. Therefore, stalking becoming increasingly prevalent in the sense of socially acceptable. Stalking behavior exists when parents start to use the full advantages of social networking sites, which provides them a way to monitor their child’s every move. The presence of social networking sites has made the life easier for stalker without having difficulty in the process of obtaining intimate information. Stalking behavior is already becoming a norm in the contemporary virtual social world because individuals are being to be voyeur due to social networking sites. Popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized attention seeking and narcissism. As this can show that the obvious stalking behavior is occurred whenever we participate in social networking sites. Moreover, the stalking behavior is treated as socially acceptable. From based on the results showed that social networking sites has been created a number of way for making life easier to stalk. The combined stalker-friendly feature with ultimate stalker tool will become godsend for stalkers. Further, social networking medium is a place where stalking is socially acceptable. Gradually, individuals practice the negative manner; hence stalking behavior is typical in social networking medium. The presence of social networking site has obviously generated stalking become a norm in virtual world.

Bibliography

Alif, C. (2009). Tips for avoiding stalker on social networking sites. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2135739/tips_for_avoiding_stalker_on_social.html

Bazar, E. (2007, April 24). Stalking ‘definitely a problem’ for women at college. USA Today, Retrieved April 25, 2010, from http://www.usatoday.com/

Donath, J., & boyd, D. (2004). Public Displays of Connection. BT Technology Journal, 22(4), 71-82, Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/socialnetdisplay.draft.pdf

Dubow, B. (2007, March 8). Confessions of ‘Facebook stalkers’. USA Today, Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-03-07-facebook-stalking_N.htm

Hickerson, C. (2010). Facebook relatability. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from http://c2.puc.edu/

Jayson, S. (2009, August 25). Are social networks making students more narcissistic?. USA Today, Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-08-24-narcissism-young_N.htm

Leyden, J. (2006, September 8). Facebook mods controversial ‘stalker-friendly’ feature. The Register, Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.theregister.co.uk/

Meehan, R. (2009). Facebook stalkers beware!. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://blog.ctnews.com/

Narcissists can be identified by their facebook accounts-Psychologists. (2008, September 22). e! Science News, Retrieved 25 April, 2010, from http://esciencenews.com/

O’brien, T. (2010). Track sleeping patterns with Twitter, you crazy stalker. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.switched.com

Oliver, K. (2010, March 19). Ivanka Trumps’s “Obsessed” alleged stalker arrested in Reno. CBS News, Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.cbsnews.com/

Rees, G. (n.d.). My internet ‘friend’ become a virtual stalker. Daily Mail, Retrieved 25 April, 2010, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Riddle, D. (2010). Teen sues facebook-stalking mother. Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.switched.com/

Stalking behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.bullyonline.org/related/stalking.htm

Social Networking. (n.d.). What is social networking?. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/

The University of Texas at Arlington (n.d.) Get educated: Stalking. Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.uta.edu/studentaffairs/rvsp/stalking.htm

Zukerman, E. (2010). SleepingTime. Org lets you stalk Tweeter addicts even more effectively. Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.downloadsquad.com

Social Networks Facebook, hackers, Privacy, Social Networking, social networking sites, twitter

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Comments

Written by Roberta about 8 months ago. Reply

I just read your paper and I thought some of it to be rather sexist. I don’t take kindly to that and if I were there I’d kick you so hard.

Sincerly
Written by li ying about 2 years ago. Reply

Very interesting paper. I never thought that news feed in Facebook is one of the stalking devices until now. I agree with you about this issue because that is where I can see what my friends are doing and hence, get to know more about their current life no matter where they go.
I think I stalk some friends of mine. It’s very addictive like reading blogs because I have to check their profile everyday to see what’s going on with them. Also, when I’m bored and need a break from assignments, I randomly pick a friend’s profile on Facebook and look at it.
Of course, I only check my best friends. I’m not sure whether they check me too but sometimes I get messages about an issue I discussed with other friends. I will be like, who told you that? And my friend will be like, oh, my source informed me. And I know what she meant- Facebook.
Written by JasonK about 2 years ago. Reply

This is a great paper to highlight the potential dangers of social stalking on SNS’s. In my own paper I discussed the privacy flaws in Facebook and only lightly touched upon stalking as an example, but in your paper you have investigated this issue in more detail.

I agree that the fundamental problem is how to define stalking on SNS’s. Because this is such a grey area, and without any clear definition, many actions taken by users on SNS’s can be classified as stalking when in reality they may not be.

I found a possible definition online about what constitutes cyberstalking, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime (2003),

“Cyberstalking can be defined as threatening behavior or unwanted advances directed at another using the Internet and other forms of online and computer communications.”

Twitter is a stalkers dream, and the comment I made on another post applies to your paper also, the phenomena known as ambient awareness. This is when over time small pieces of personal information, although incoherent on their own, over time, help to form a picture about the person’s personality and life. Twitter, with its little bits of pieces of data, is incoherent on its own, but when looked at over a long period of time, helps to form a picture of the persons life, attitudes, personality etc.

The tools that SNS’s offer, like News Feeds, The Wall, etc, are in a way neutral, in that their purpose is to facilitate communication between people. It is people who through their intent, transform the use of these tools from one of communication to one of stalking.

In SNS’s, user’s can protect themselves from the majority of cyberstalking by setting their privacy settings in such a manner that only their friends have access to their profile AND that they add only real friends, and not “friends of friends” that they don’t really know or who they have never met. This should afford some degree of protection, but with anything online, safety is not guaranteed because cyberstalkers can be anyone, even your parents as you point out in your paper.

The “Friending” mechanism is a great privacy concern for all users because by accepting a “friend” request from someone, you are by proxy permitting all that sender’s Friends access to your profile and personally identifiable information. Clay Shirky (cited in Grimmelmann, p38) has neatly summarized this predicament by stating that a, “‘[F]riend of a friend of a friend’ is pronounced ‘stranger.’” Herein lies the problem and privacy issue with the Friending”mechanism as it exposes personally private and identifiable information to strangers beyond the immediate person you have just “Friended”.

When we live a lot of our lives online, it should be understood that there will be dangers, just as there are in real life. Stalking can occur on the Internet in SNS’s and it can occur in real life. In both cases, we should be cautious as to whom we communicate with and in the case of SNS’s, be sensible to the amount of personally private information that we release online.

With the open default privacy settings in Facebook, users need to be more aware than ever that privacy is an illusion on Facebook and take the necessary precautions.

Very good paper to read. I hope that people will think more about these issues and take steps to protect themselves as much as possible.

Grimmelmann, J.T. (2009) Saving Facebook, 94 Iowa L. Rev. 1137, 1160
http://www.law.uiowa.edu/journals/ilr/Issue%20PDFs/ILR_94-4_Grimmelmann.pdf

National Center for Victims of Crime (2003). Cyberstalking. Retrieved from http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32458

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_stalking#Definitions
- Written by waisi,tham about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Thank for leaving me a commentary, Jason. I am truly appreciated for consuming your precious time to read my paper.
  
  In certain extent, many actions taken by the users on social networking sites are defined as similar to real-life stalking. Because it is just the matter of location, either stalking people in virtual world or real life.
  
  The main idea of these features is available in social networking sites facilitate communication between people, yet these people who may have the intention of any negative purposes will develop an unethical behavior likes stalking on social networking sites. Also, people tend to ignore the privacy setting and let their every single piece of information posted on social networking sites publicly accessible.
  
  From my point of view, to form a stalking behavior requires two-way communication, without such an ultimate stalker tool provided by social networking sites, it would not be made the life easier for stalkers. If the users are having high awareness the danger of stalking, they can ignore the friendly stalking features by selecting the high protection privacy setting such as the option only ‘me’ can read yourself intimate details. This can prevent any single piece of your personal information flow out to anyone. As the purpose of using SNSs is to communicate with friends and acquaintances, which to a certain extent that users should not accommodate oneself to the culture of social networking sites, allowing public to browse your page and profile. Without the ultimate stalker tool provided by social networking sites, stalkers hardly to obtain anyone intimate information effortlessly. Also, if SNSs’ users are be aware the potential being stalked by anyone, the stalkers have vey low possibility to success in obtaining your personal details and stalking you.
Written by Jiawen Lin about 2 years ago. Reply

Thank you for your paper. “Stalking” is an interesting topic to me and I have learnt a lot about it from your paper. However, I am not sure how parents can monitor their children’s activities on social network site. Do parents have accounts and add their children as friends and check their posts? How about if their children do not add their parents as friends or make the settings to limit their parents to access to their pages?

I agree that stalking behaviour exist in social network but if we have good knowledge on privacy protection and customize the settings in the sites to control other people to see our personal information, can we reduce the risk and harm from stalking?
- Written by waisitham about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hello, Jiawen. Thanks for leaving a commentary.
  
  Indeed, there is many ways for parents to monitor their children’s activities on social networking sites. As i have stated in my paper that parent can be the stalkers in the field of family matter.
  1. parent can create a fake identity on social networking sites to add their children as ‘friend’
  2. When the children leave the computer unattended, the parent can just stalk their children, which this can be considered as real-life stalking behavior.
  3. The children use the default privacy setting which allows public accessibly to view their profile and all information.
  
  As the first option as i listed will be the most suitable option because the parents can monitor and check on their children consistently.
  
  To form of cyber stalking, it needs two way of communication. Without the ultimate stalker tool provided by the social networking sites, it makes hardly to stalkers to have higher chances to target the victims easily. Also, the users are lack of awareness in the danger of stalking can lead to bad consequences. Hence, it offer a chance to stalkers easily in obtaining personal information.
  
  Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of being stalked, users should be alert of the information posted on social networking sites. Also, online social media should stop indirectly promoting ultimate stalker options such as ‘public’ and ‘ friends of friends’ can view oneself profile. As we will never know that might one of our friends are a virtual stalker.
  
  In conclusion, it is better to not put too much intimate information on social networking sites and increase awareness of the danger of cyber stalking, which can prevent being the victims of cyberstalking.
Written by JoG about 2 years ago. Reply

Thanks for your paper – it has generated some interesting debate.

I think that the comment made by Michael regarding the definition of cyberstalking highlights the need for clarification in this area. I think that there are really two aspects of stalking that are discussed in your paper. One relates to the criminal apect of stalking as defined by the Crimes Act, which currently defines stalking as “a persistent course of conduct undertaken with the intention of causing harm or of instilling apprehension or fear in a person”. Cyberstalking then relates to the use of Internet; email; messageboards; discussion forums or any other electronic communications used to stalk another person. The underlying assumption is that the person is caused harm (or fear of harm) by the person who is stalking them. People who stalk others tend to do so for a number of reasons: to intimidate, to engraciate themself etc. Research has found that stalkers tend to use online interactions as an extension of offline stalking behaviour (Sheridan & Grant, 2007). Yes, a stalker may have more access to information online and it is here that privacy concerns are important, but generally speaking it is not the medium that creates the stalker but rather the character of the individual.

The other aspect of stalking, particularly in regard to Facebook, has more to do with what could be desribed as social stalking. Just as you mentioned in the definition of Facebook stalking and casual stalking, this is more about monitoring what others are doing using SNSs. Although this can lead to the stalking as described previously (i.e. with some element of harm intended), generally it is more frequently used as means of seeing what others are doing and the vouyerism you mentioned in your paper. The other aspect of this type of stalking is that it can have a negative impact on the ’stalker’. From my work as a psychologist, I see many people who are affected in this way. From those who were told by friends that they weren’t doing anything on the weekend and then finding out that they had been exluded from a party to
- Written by JoG about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Oops, accidently pressed the leave comment button – hadn’t quite finished what I was saying in the previous post.
  
  … someone checking up on their ex-partner and finding out that they are dating someone new. In these cases, the ’stalkers’ do more harm to themselves that the people they are observing, who are frequently unaware that they had been observed.
  
  I agree with you that SNSs do provide a greater opportunity to be observed. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to how much personal information they reveal to others, whether this is online or offline. However, just because someone advertises their presence it does not mean that others have the right to take advantage of this information. In the bad old days, the defence for rape was “she led me on” because she worn provocative clothes; that is, she advertised her presence and I couldn’t help myself. Luckily this type of thinking has mostly changed. Therefore, it would be sad to see the medium (i.e. SNSs) blamed in the same way for the bad behaviours of some individuals.
  
  Jo
  
  Sheridan, L. P; Grant, T. Is cyberstalking different? (2007) Psychology, Crime & Law, 13(6), 627-640.
  - Written by waisitham about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    Hi Jo, thank you for your comment.
    
    I do agree with you that it is not the medium that creates the stalker but rather his/her own characteristics. Particularly speaking, the medium just promotes a person to develop these characteristics, stalking behavior. As I have stated in my paper, the emergence of social networking sites, users are started to adopt the culture of social networks, has led the people learn a negative behavior such as be voyeur as time goes by.
    
    What do the authors and other reads think of this type of stalking is that it can have a negative effect on the stalkers?
    
    I do agree as you said ‘when someone advertises their presence it does not mean that other have the right to take advantage of this information. Social networking sites did not advertise stalking, but then it has several reasons that SNS supports stalking by providing ultimate-stalker tools. Social networking sites are not advertising but supporting the stalking. Also, the people are misuse of social networking.
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago. Reply

I think one counter arguement to this is that the perception of stalking is individual. Although there are definitions, at what point does someone become a stalker? Also, what if someone’s stalker leaves postings on the SNS but never rings and does not meet you? I think it is is crucial to protect one’s self and crucial to maintain privacy, but at the same time not assume multiple postings or contacts are stalking as such. Too many just use the term stalker flippantly when often that person is simply just a fan. I think that the tone of the messages not always the frequency give clues as to how serious that person is with their stalking behaviours.

Certainly the law in accussing people of cyber stalking has some more work to do to define the boundaries of it. This article has an interesting comment regarding a case where a former employee just contacting former employees to find information was constituted as stalking (Gibson, 2009):

But David Vaile, the executive director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of NSW, said prosecutions had usually involved clearly harassing statements with swearing or threats.

”It’s a case you could run, but it’s probably stretching it for the firm to accuse him of harassment for asking for information … or searching for people,” he said.

The article suggests the boundary is not clear and does advise people to be very careful who they contact and what they want, but it also raises the question where is the boundary of stalking, words, frequency of contact etc? Also I think some will use the term stalking at someone they dislike to get back at them.

A humourous very short YouTube clip on Facebook and stalking is worth a look, it might make fun of something serious perhaps, but it does show what is possible with Facebook and the mini feeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w35cFqG4qLk

Gibson, J. (2009). Challenge to idea of Facebook stalking. The Age. Retrieved 5 May, 2010, from http://www.theage.com.au/technology/challenge-to-idea-of-facebook-stalking-20090909-fhms.html
- Written by waisitham about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Reply to Michael. N,
  
  Hi Michael, thank you for your comment.
  
  The point at which a stalker is defined depends on everyone’s perspective. As time goes by, the term stalker has been used by many but defined differently. There is no brief, in to detail, description of stalking nowadays. As mentioned in my paper, there’s a fine line differentiation between casual stalking and the actual stalking. Stalkers, whom as you questioned leave postings on SNS but never ring and meet up, are known as casual stalking, which this stalking behavior is typical in social networks.
  
  To what extent do multiple postings or contacts relate to stalking? This aspect mostly relates to harassment. If this were to be an issue towards a person, that person have every rights to choose to report the harasser or block him/her, which is just a click away. But as you mentioned, the term stalker has in fact been used wrongly throughout and thus relating to the whole point of this article.
Written by waisi,tham about 2 years ago. Reply

Reply to RosannaCandler’s commentary

I refer to the urban dictionary, the definition of ‘Facebook paparazzi’ is ‘when someone takes photo of embarrassing moments or doing things you probably shouldn’t be doing, then uploads and tags them on Facebook for all your friends to see.’ (Facebook Paparazzi, 2008) For example, Hey, Sandra, all my friends saw a picture of i made out with a transsexual girl… damn you Facebook Paparazzi.

Whereas, ‘Facebook stalking’ refers ‘someone who prowls or sneaks around your Facebook mini feed; usually with unlawful or unscrupulous intentions. The Facebook stalker is known for direct or subliminal interaction with victims via Facebook chat, Facebook messages, photo comments and pokes.’ (Garbo, 2010) Monitoring people’s facebook life. For example, Are you with Sandra? You are so gay.

Therefore, it is more appropriate to use the word of ‘stalking’ in my topic. My topic is at the position where there is an obvious sign support stalking due to the social networking sites provide ultimate stalker tool. The emergence of social networking site provides stalker-friendly tool, which seems to be sort of supporting stalking behaviour.

Twitter users who allow public accessibility is obviously a sign of welcome for stalkers, isn’t it? And as for Facebook, if creating a Facebook account isn’t a sign of welcome for stalkers, then what is it for then? Some might say, it’s for reuniting with long lost friends, some might say it’s for personal entertainment. But could you blame those who happened to stumble across your Facebook page and decided to explore a bit on your page? If you dislike strangers stalking your Facebook or twitter, you can always set it as private so no one else can view anything personal to you.

Furthermore, the ‘everyone’ option in Facebook privacy setting, is an obvious sign of welcome to stalkers? It allows whoever on Facebook to view your page. If this is not considered as a sign for welcoming stalkers, then what is?

Reference:

Garbo, T. (2010). Facebook Stalkers. Retrieved 30 April, 2010, from http://wisdom.uwise.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:talisa-garbo&catid=1:scene&Itemid=19

Facebook Paparazzi. (2008). Retrieved 30 April, 2010, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facebook%20Paparazzi
- Written by RosannaCandler about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi again
  
  I feel a little silly- as I typed I just made up ‘facebook paparazzi’ and didn’t even consider that it might be developed as a phrase. If I could reaffirm my meaning, I meant that we are privy to our friends’ everyday activities online through status updates etc. The users themselves are in a way advertising and representing an image for their network to view and respond to. So instead of ‘paparazzi’ I more accurately mean ‘audience’.
  
  That said, I did not mean to suggest that you were not valid in your use of “stalking”- you absolutely are and I think your paper proves this time and time again. I was just discussing a different perspective, that because Facebook friends often innocently refer to ‘facebook stalking’ between friends, that *their* actions are more akin to the reality show example. I think it’s difficult to distinguish between the varying degrees of seriousness that we refer to ‘stalking’ nowadays.
  
  I’m still hesitant about your saying users are “welcoming stalkers”. I think that by posting private information on a public forum people are definitely being thoughtless and putting themselves at risk, but they are doing so for a different reason than to welcome stalking. They may be extremely extraverted or looking for online fame or recognition- but I do not think it is a conscious decision.
  - Written by waisitham about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    Hi again☺
    
    In my opinion, I do agree that user posting private information on a public forum is indeed a foolish thing to do. And yes, maybe they post their information up just to look for online fame or recognition. People do things unconsciously without thinking about the consequences of their doings.
    
    As these social networking sites are mainly used by young adults, their way of thinking, in my opinion is that they can’t be bothered to think about the risks that can happen if they post their information up. But instead, only after anything bad happens to them, then they realize their mistake and will start to be conscious about their privacy. This is when users will start using privacy tools in these social networking sites.
Written by waisi,tham about 2 years ago. Reply

Reply to Camwhipp’s commentary.

It can be one of the reason that users willing to give up their privacy in order to obtain attention. Well, there are many young adults are giving their whole intimate information without any fear of being stalked. Especially to those users use glamorous, self-promoting photo as profile picture, they are seeking for attention, and providing with a load of personal information. Indeed, we have some friends who are giving almost full intimate information in the category of ‘info’ at Facebook.

In fact, there are young adults or teenagers have different perspectives from you. They mostly think of social networking sites for attention grabbing. You may treat social networking medium serves the benefit like information gathering and I agree in your point of view. Yet, people may use social networking sites for bad intention since it provides stalker-friendly tool? Such as stalking friends for certain purposes?

The users who have the attention seeking personality, they are willingly to disclose their privacy in order to obtain attention. This statement is more appropriate applied to the teenagers. As we know when they are in a certain stage – attention grabbing, hence, it can develop an attention seeking behavior. By you can determine to those users who are having glamorous, self-promoting pictures as their profile picture or users who provide huge personal information in the ‘info’ category.

Moreover, A finding showed that teenagers with online profiles have a greater tendency to say it is fine to share with people where they go to school, their Instant Messaging screen name, email address, last name and cellular phone number with someone they met at parties. (Lenhart & Madden, 2007) – It is regarding about how teenagers manage their personal information in the age of social networking site.

With all these intimate information, isn’t it good enough to invite stalking?

Due to the tendency of social networking sites, people have adopted the culture of social networks that think of it is actually fine to give out their general personal information to public.

Reference:

Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2007). Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace. Retrieved April 29, 2010, from http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Society_and_the_Internet/PIP_Teens_Privacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf
Written by RosannaCandler about 2 years ago. Reply

First off, I really enjoyed your conference paper. I have always considered social network stalking as a somewhat innocent endeavour (as you refer to in the first couple of paragraphs as “casual stalking”). So it was really enlightening to read about the more sinister forms of privacy invasion and harassment that these websites seem to be supporting.

I would say that when we refer to ‘facebook stalking’ in everyday language, for example “Oh I know that person- he’s a friend of a friend of so-and-so and I stalked him on Facebook” the word has definitely lost its once menacing quality. The word has become so socially acceptable that people also refer to ‘stalking’ their own friends. In my paper I mention the way people visit their friends pages (with no intention of speaking or connecting with them) just to stalk as “entertainment”. A blogger I really like called Raina Kelly says that people are starting to see Facebook as their “own personal reality show”. So in a way, maybe we are incorrectly referring to “Facebook-friend stalking”- when really it’s more “Facebook-friend paparazzi”?

And just quickly, I’m not sure I agree with Alif (2009) when he says when a person posts personal details on a public domain (Twitter, in his example) that it “obviously gives a sign that stalkers are welcome”. That sort of sweeping statement seems quite hypercritical. 1. Obviously a stalker is never made consciously ‘welcome’ and 2. If a person wants to stalk another person, they will. Nowadays with a phonebook it wouldn’t be hard. I think it would be very rare for someone to think “This person is telling me where they are right now. That would make them easy to stalk- might as well”.
Although that being said, I really don’t know what a stalker would think!

Again, awesome paper and really interesting topic
Written by Sky about 2 years ago. Reply

One of the interesting aspects of this paper is the positioning of social networking sites in the context of a world where attention is a scarce resource, which intersects with the work on the ‘attention economy’. What do the author and other readers think of the idea that we are living in an attention economy? And if we are living in a world where attention is a scarce and sought-after resource, can this serve as a key motivating factor explaining explain users’ willingness to give up their privacy in order to receive attention?
- Written by Camwhipp about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  As far as us living in an attention-scarce world….I think it is the opposite is the case, so I firmly disagree with the statement –
  
  ‘As growing popularity of social networking sites, it is getting more people wish to be the centre of attention. In fact, attention is the scarce resource in the contemporary age of virtual world.’
  
  I believe SNs are an expression of the attention – rich world we live in. We live in an attention age. If no one was paying any attention, where would the users get their kicks? They interact with each other endlessly. No attention would mean no users posting info about themselves.
  
  I believe the key motivating factor explaining users’ willingness to give up their privacy in order to receive attention is almost a sheep-like herd mentality. If everyone else is doing it, then I should too! It serves no intrinsic advancement purpose for so many. ie. more money or respect. Just for the record, I have no FaceBook or Twitter or anything. I was never into ICQ or MSN Messenger. Virtual interaction for me serves specific purposes such as information gathering. If I was into self promotion I would create a personal page. But I am not. So I will not.
- Written by waisi,tham about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Reply to Sky’s commentary.
  
  It can be one of the reason that users willing to give up their privacy in order to obtain attention. Well, there are many young adults are giving their whole intimate information without any fear of being stalked. Especially to those users use glamorous, self-promoting photo as profile picture, they are seeking for attention, and providing with a load of personal information. Indeed, we have some friends who are giving almost all intimate information in the category of ‘info’ at Facebook.
  
  The article of ‘Twitter and (not) monetizing the attention economy’, the author said that social networking sites, such as Twitter, attention is the only currency available that can offer to the users (Fine, 2009). Hence, it can see that users who engaged in social networking sites especially those who has attention-seeking personality, they are more likely living in an attention economy.
  
  Reference:
  
  Fine, J. (2009). Twitter and (not) monetizing the attention economy. Businessweek. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2009/03/twitter_and_the.html
Written by Victoria about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi! I’m reading your paper and will leave you some comments shortly.
Regards
Victoria

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Online Conference on Networks and Communities

Social networking sites have taken certain stances to support stalking.

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