Roy Murphy | Creative Director

The law courts are beginning to take cyber stalking seriously, social networks need to as well.

A very real and scary stalking case shows how harassment
Has moved in a very real sense to the digital sphere

Facebook and MySpace are places where individuals can hang out, chat and communicate amongst friends and colleagues. But there are also hidden dangers to having your name, age, interests likes and dislikes out there for anyone to see.

Inappropriate contact online is not just an annoyance and simply blocking the individual concerned may not be enough. Unfortunately this is a by product of our information age. At last the law seems to be catching up with the reality.

This story from the London Metro Newspaper tells how A 23 year old man has been given a suspended 12 month prison term and a lifetime restraining order after bombarding a 20 year old college student with aggressive and threatening messages.

It is becoming harder and harder to stave off people who are hell bent, for whatever reason, in harassing us online. The channels are growing quickly and more and more of us are available 24/7 on social networks, blogs, twitter, email and mobile devices.

New rules must be put in place to combat unwanted attention. It is heartening to see the law taking this issue seriously but it is not enough. Facebook, MySpace and the other social network giants need to adhere to a code of conduct, better still, to be leading the initiatives. The ‘carrier’ defence that is left over from the telephone networks is from a bygone age and can no longer hold sway

All of this means individuals need to be aware of their digital footprint, to know that any information that is put online can be used against them as well as for them.

This places us squarely in a conundrum. Do we throw caution to the wind and have an open network of people inviting anyone to connect, join in and communicate with us? Or do we close the digital avenues of communication only letting select known people through our internet filters. A difficult choice in an age of openness.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Reputation Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.