No / The ubiquity of the ICT and the Internet has made them integral to our daily lives in the past two decades, bringing numerous benefits and the risks of victimisation from various cybercrimes, including cyber harassment and cyberstalking. Stalking is generally understood as unwanted or unsolicited persistent and continuous following, pursuing, contacting, spying, harassing, threatening the victim, and causing fear and apprehension. Unfortunately, given the seriousness of cyberstalking and its severe and traumatic impacts on the victims, the existence of the law and any legal protection for victims remains elusive and vague in the Malaysian legal landscape for decades until August this year.

The introduction of cyber technology, accompanied by its fast developing nature, has not only resulted in numerous advantages to its user and society as a whole but has also produced harmful consequences specifically impacting on cyber crime. One of these harmful effects is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking is the use of the Internet or any electronic medium to stalk, harass and pursue victims. This unwanted perusal has various negative implications for the victim, as cyber stalking can disrupt many aspects of an individual’s lifestyle. In this study, the occurrence, nature and the impact of cyber stalking among the victims of cyber stalking were explored. Additionally, protective measures available to victims of cyber stalking were examined as a way to facilitate the operational efficiency of related legislation. This was done through determining the occurrence, nature and the impact of cyber stalking as well as the extent of the usage of social networks in the commission of cyber stalking. Legislation specific to South Africa and the effectiveness of such legislation were examined. The study implemented a qualitative approach. Twelve research participants who met the requirements of the study were selected by means of purposive and snowball sampling methods. The study was publicised on the Internet through current popular social network sites. In conjunction to the cyber theme of the study, the research participants were requested to complete an online e-mail interview to share their personal cyber stalking victimisation experiences. Within the constraints of the e-mail interview, a semi-structured interview schedule was incorporated in order to guide the research participants in sharing their cyber stalking victimisation experiences. The findings of the study were extensive; ranging from emerged patterns to unique and exclusive experiences. In brief, the study concludes that cyber stalking is occurring in South Africa, its nature and impact is complex and although there are many common themes within cyber stalking, it is uniquely situated to individual cyber stalking incident(s). Although there is no current South African legislation specifically aimed at addressing cyber stalking, South African legislation comprehensively deals with addressing the problem of cyber stalking within various related legislation. It was determined that although cyber stalking is effectively addressed in the drafting of legislation, it is ineffectively administered at grass roots level, where the police act as the gatekeepers and vital role players in the reporting and intervention of crime. Based upon the findings, as guided by the aims and objectives of the study, recommendations for the prevention and intervention of cyber stalking as well as recommendations for future research were made. As derived from the research participants’ responses as well as from current literature, recommendations focused on all victims of cyber stalking while specifically paying attention to young victims and victims who are business users. Recommendations were also made to assist in dealing with cyber stalking as well as recommendations aimed at assisting professional role players. In the final chapter of the study, emphasis is placed on awareness and educational campaigns aimed at informing the cyber community of cyber stalking. / Criminal & Procedural Law / Masters of Arts (Criminology)

The introduction of cyber technology, accompanied by its fast developing nature, has not only resulted in numerous advantages to its user and society as a whole but has also produced harmful consequences specifically impacting on cyber crime. One of these harmful effects is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking is the use of the Internet or any electronic medium to stalk, harass and pursue victims. This unwanted perusal has various negative implications for the victim, as cyber stalking can disrupt many aspects of an individual’s lifestyle. In this study, the occurrence, nature and the impact of cyber stalking among the victims of cyber stalking were explored. Additionally, protective measures available to victims of cyber stalking were examined as a way to facilitate the operational efficiency of related legislation. This was done through determining the occurrence, nature and the impact of cyber stalking as well as the extent of the usage of social networks in the commission of cyber stalking. Legislation specific to South Africa and the effectiveness of such legislation were examined. The study implemented a qualitative approach. Twelve research participants who met the requirements of the study were selected by means of purposive and snowball sampling methods. The study was publicised on the Internet through current popular social network sites. In conjunction to the cyber theme of the study, the research participants were requested to complete an online e-mail interview to share their personal cyber stalking victimisation experiences. Within the constraints of the e-mail interview, a semi-structured interview schedule was incorporated in order to guide the research participants in sharing their cyber stalking victimisation experiences. The findings of the study were extensive; ranging from emerged patterns to unique and exclusive experiences. In brief, the study concludes that cyber stalking is occurring in South Africa, its nature and impact is complex and although there are many common themes within cyber stalking, it is uniquely situated to individual cyber stalking incident(s). Although there is no current South African legislation specifically aimed at addressing cyber stalking, South African legislation comprehensively deals with addressing the problem of cyber stalking within various related legislation. It was determined that although cyber stalking is effectively addressed in the drafting of legislation, it is ineffectively administered at grass roots level, where the police act as the gatekeepers and vital role players in the reporting and intervention of crime. Based upon the findings, as guided by the aims and objectives of the study, recommendations for the prevention and intervention of cyber stalking as well as recommendations for future research were made. As derived from the research participants’ responses as well as from current literature, recommendations focused on all victims of cyber stalking while specifically paying attention to young victims and victims who are business users. Recommendations were also made to assist in dealing with cyber stalking as well as recommendations aimed at assisting professional role players. In the final chapter of the study, emphasis is placed on awareness and educational campaigns aimed at informing the cyber community of cyber stalking. / Criminal and Procedural Law / M. A. (Criminology)

No description available.

Cyber aggression came about as a result of advances in information communication technology and the aggressive usage of the technology in real life. Cyber aggression can take on many forms and facets. However, the main focus of this study is cyberbullying and cyberstalking through information sharing practices that might constitute digital aggressive acts. Human aggression has been extensively investigated. Studies focusing on understanding the causes and effects that can lead to physical and digital aggression have shown the prevalence of cyber aggression in different settings. Moreover, these studies have shown strong relationship between cyber aggression and the physiological and physical trauma on both perpetrators and their victims. Nevertheless, the literature shows a lack of studies that could measure the level of acceptance and tolerance of these dangerous digital acts. This study is divided into two main stages; Stage one is a qualitative pilot study carried out to explore the concept of cyber aggression and its existence in Saudi Arabia. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Saudi social media users to collect understanding and meanings of cyber aggression. The researcher followed the Colaizzi’s methods to analyze the descriptive data. A proposed model was generated to describe cyber aggression in social media applications. The results showed that there is a level of acceptance to some cyber aggression acts due to a number of factors. The second stage of the study is focused on developing scales with reliable items that could determine acceptability and tolerability of cyber aggression. In this second stage, the researcher used the factors discovered during the first stage as source to create the scales’ items. The proposed methods and scales were analyzed and tested to increase reliability as indicated by the Cronbach’s Alpha value. The scales were designed to measure how acceptable and tolerable is cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking in Saudi Arabia and the sharing of some information in social media applications. The results show a strong tolerance level of those activities. This study is a valuable resource for advanced-level students, educators, and researchers who focus on cyber security, cyber psychology, and cyber aggression in social network sites.