This is an issue that matters to any online community as well as parents and children of older adults who go on-line.
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone.
It has been defined as the use of information and communications technology, particularly the Internet, by an individual or group of individuals, to harass another individual, group of individuals, or organization. The behavior includes false accusations, monitoring, the transmission of threats, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, the solicitation of minors for sexual purposes, and gathering information for harassment purposes. The harassment must be such that a reasonable person, in possession of the same information, would regard it as sufficient to cause another reasonable person distress.<1>
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
This is a real problem in www communities. It started almost the moment Darpa started. I know that in the old days of the Usenet system, the places were NOT moderated, it happened. It happened a lot. Hell, one experience was with a woman that went so far as to send a virus over the web. Nope, at the time that was not a crime, though highly annoying.
These days it has developed into things that range from low level stalking, to kids and adults who loose a lot. Their IDs, their sanity, their lives.
So this is a serious problem, and people need to be aware of this. And yes, ALL sites have some measure of it. Some sites, not moderated, are pretty bad about this. But even moderated are pretty bad about this. It is one of those things that it is not recognized by many.
It also goes hand in hand with cyber bullying, which has gotten a little more press. Here more info for you on this.
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org /
http://www.cyberbullying.us /
Now every time any of us tries to bring this subject up, for whatever reason it is not deemed worthy of discussion. Suffice it to say, kids have killed themselves over it. So yes, it is a subject worthy of discussion and worthy of attention
Nadin