Stalking means harassing or annoying a person by intruding into his or her privacy. It can be done either face to face or in other ways. The result will be affect one mentally. Stalking is now common in Cyber space as in the real world. One of the common demerits of social networking and chatting sites had been the increase of online stalkers. These online stalking can be done through face to face chatting, emails, other direct and indirect methods etc. This is commonly known as Cyber stalking. There is no effective law or specific law(to be more correct) about cyberstalking in any nations. Let us see what are the available laws in some nations for dealing with the act of cyberstalking.
United Kingdom
The University of Bedfordshire in United Kingdom has opened the a national research centre into cyber-stalking. There are experts in the field of technology, psychology, sociology and law to research the matter.As per BBC report, the British Crime Survey says that upto five million people are suffering from cyber stalking in a year. Any one could be the victim of cyber stalking.UK is a nation which effectively deals with the offence of cyber stalking.However there is no specific law dealing with Cyberstalking.
In UK, there is Protection from Harassment Act, 1997. As per Protection from Harassment Act, 1997 “harassment” of a person includes causing the person alarm or distress. So the term harassment is wide as we see from the inclusive definition of it in the Act. If anyone pursue a course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another is an offence under the Act.
So whether cyberstalking can be treated as harassment under this Act. Since there are no specific provisions for cyberstalking it can be brought under the inclusive definition of harassment and the offender can be punished accordingly.
There is yet another legislation in UK to make provision for the punishment of persons who send or deliver letters or other articles for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety. This is called the Malicious Communications Act,1988.
There is another legislation in UK to make provision for securing computer material against unauthorised access or modification and connected purposes. All these legislations contain elements of offence of stalking. But none of them specifically deals with cyberstalking.
United States
As per 47 USC section 223 abusing, annoying, harrassing, threatening etc of a person through certain means is a punishable offence.
In different states different legislations have been passed to prevent and punish the offence of cyberstalking.
Florida's law HB 0479 deals with the offence very specifically. Cyberstalk means communication by electronic means which causes substantial emotional distress and does not seve a legitimate purpose.
Texas has specific provision for stalking in its Penal Code and Criminal Procedure code. With regard to Cyberstalking, Stalking by Electronic Communications Act is the answer
Several States in US has effectively dealt with the offence of stalking through their respective laws.
India
There is no specific law defining the offence of cyber stalking in India. However the elements of the offence of stalking can be found in Penal Code. In the Indian Penal Code. Section 509 of the Code which favours only women prohibits insulting the modesty of any woman by uttering words, sounds, gestures, exhibiting objects etc. The elements of this offence can be treated in the offence of stalking and the culprit can be punished by the use of this section also.
The elements of offence of stalking can also be found in Defamation as defined under Section 499 and Criminal Intimidation as defined under Section 503.
In tune with these sections in Indian Penal Code there is a provision in Information Technology Act, 2000 where publication or transmission of obscene material through electronic means is punishable.(Section 67). Thus they can incorporate the offence of cyber stalking through this section of the IT Act.(There are also other similar provisions in IT Act) The Communication Convergence Bill, 2001 contained a provision which punishes any person who uses or sends content by a communication service or a network infrastructure facility to insult, annoy, or threat others.
Apart from the above laws, India still dont have a specific law or provision for cyber stalking.
Conclusion
Cyber stalking is a very serious offence. It should be properly defined. It should be categorised viz direct, indirect(virus or other means), etc. Necessary powers to be given to seize the equipments. Special officers to be assigned. Proper division should be made between legitimate use of electronic means by authorities (which amounts to stalking otherwise)and illegitimate use which amounts to stalking. In the era of fastly growing technology and gadgets, the laws and enforcement agencies should speed up themselves. I conclude this post temporarily hoping to see a good and effective mechanism to prohibit cyberstalking. Thanks.
