E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 individual by another or by a group, perpetrated through or utilizing electronic means.62 Some approaches emphasize the threatening aspects of the conduct, defining the term as online conduct that “involves threats or other offensive behaviour, sent online to the youth or posted online about the youth for others to see.”63 Other approaches emphasize the elements of aggression and the potential for harm: “online harassment occurs when someone uses the Internet to express aggression towards another person. This can take the form of inflammatory e-mails or instant messages, or damaging pictures or text posted on a profile”.64 Cyber-harassment may escalate to extortion or even kidnapping. Sex-related extortion on the Internet, sometimes known as “sextortion”, is becoming increasingly common. In such cases, offenders use information and photos, including collected through online contact with the victim, to blackmail minors into producing sexually explicit content or meeting them for sexual purposes, sometimes even threatening victims and their families. Offenders may send harassing messages or even threats via e-mail, instant message, social media profiles or other simple forms of electronic communication. Offenders may also post images of the victim juxtaposed on pornographic images from other sources or develop a whole website or social media page focused on their victims. Other tactics consist of provoking attacks on victims by a thirdparty or contacting the victims’ friends, family, teachers or employers. Similarly to cyber-harassment, cyber-bullying encompasses the use of ICTs to harm a victim or victims in deliberate, repeated, and hostile ways. This can include but is not limited to the use of the Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.65 As noted in a 2011 UNICEF study conducted in South Africa on the use of social networks, “[e]ven though bullying is a phenomenon that existed well before the creation of the World Wide Web, Internet, in addition to mobile phones, has magnified the problem by creating a new venue through which bullying can be executed. When perpetrated online, cyberbullying is eased by the apparent anonymity and distance from the victim.”66 Some approaches to characterizing the phenomenon are centred around the age of the victim and perpetrator, such as when a child, pre-teen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, pre-teen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.67 In cyber-bullying, “the identity of the bully may or may not be known. Cyberbullying can occur through electronically-mediated communication at school; however, cyberbullying behaviours commonly occur outside the school as well.”68 “Cyber-stalking” is commonly understood as a course of action that involves more than one incident perpetrated through or utilizing electronic means that causes distress, fear or alarm. It is primarily characterized by the repetitive aspect of the conduct at hand.69 Just like its offline counterpart, cyber-stalking includes activities related to locating, surveying, and harassing or manipulating victims. Compared to spatial or offline stalkers, however, cyber-stalkers are characterized by use of online sources of information and means of contacting victims.70 The nature of online communication and the vast amount of information that stalkers can access online may result in a false sense of intimacy for the offender and the relative anonymity afforded by the virtual context can have a disinhibiting effect.71 __________________ 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 Maple, C., Short, E., Brown, A., 2011. Cyberstalking in the United Kingdom. An Analysis of the ECHO Pilot Survey. University of Bedfordshire – National Centre for Cyberstalking Research. P. 4. Available at: http://www.beds.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/83109/ECHO_Pilot_Final.pdf. Mitchell, K., Finkelhor, D., Wolak J., 2000. Online victimization: A report on the nation’s youth. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Available at: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/Victimization_Online_ Survey.pdf Ybarra, M., Espelage, D., Mitchell, K., 2007. The Co-occurrence of Internet Harassment and Unwanted Sexual Solicitation Victimization and Perpetration: Associations with Psychosocial Indicators. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41:32; see also Quayle, et al. In: Ainsaar, M., Lööf, L. (eds.). P. 15. http://stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html. UNICEF, 2011. From ‘What’s your ASLR’ to ‘Do You Wanna Go Private?’. P. 12. Available at: http://www.unicef.org/southafrica/SAF_resources_mxitstudy.pdf. http://stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html Quayle, E., et al. In: Ainsaar, M., Lööf, L. (eds.). P. 13. See e.g. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2011. What is Cyberbullying. Available at: http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/. See also Maple, C., Short, E., Brown, A., 2011. P. 4. Maple, C., Short, E., Brown, A., 2011. P. 13. University of Houston, Stalking and Cyber-stalking. Available at http://www.uh.edu/wrc/safety-and-violenceprevention/stalking%20/index.php. V.14-03040 13