Stalkers

- Um dos grandes problemas enfrentados por blogueiros e fotologueiros (que bonito o termo) é a presença de stalkers. Stalkers são aqueles indivíduos que visitam os blogs/flogs alheios e usam os comentários para xingar, intimar, irritar e etc. Este interessante artigo do New York Times, fala desta pesquisa em que foram classificados os stalkers de acordo com os relatos das vítimas. O trabalho, intitulado "An Exploration of Predatory Behavior in Cyberspace: Towards a Typology of Cyberstalkers", é de Leroy McFarlane e Paul Bocij e fou publicado pela "De acordo com o estudo, as pessoas não levam stalkers suficientemente a sério, pois a maioria tem problemas psicológicos e muitos são, efetivamente, psicopatas, que acabaram perseguindo as vítimas também no mundo offline. Outra idéia interessante é a de que os stalkers não escolhem suas vítmias randomicamente, mas muitos usam a Internet para externar frustrações pessoais, desejos de vingança, problemas psíquicos ou desejo de atenção. A classificação dos stalkers, de acordo com o artigo, é a seguinte:

Vindictive Cyberstalker - This group is so named due to the ferocity to which they victimise those whom they pursue. They threatened their victims more than any other group and in the majority of cases they actually stalked their target offline. A third of the perpetrators were known to have had a previous criminal record, and two-thirds were known to have victimised others before.

Composed Cyberstalker - The composed cyberstalker is so named because it is theorized that their actions are aimed at causing constant annoyance and irritation to their victims. These cyberstalkers were not trying to establish a relationship with the victim but wished to cause distress. These types of perpetrators generally issued threats.

Intimate Cyberstalker - This group tried to 'win' the feelings and/or gain the attention of their target. The participants estimated that the computer literacy of these cyberstalkers was of a wider range than any of the previous group ? from fairly low to high. They utilised e-mail, Web discussion groups, and electronic dating sites. They also demonstrated detailed knowledge about victims.

Collective Cyberstalkers - This final group is characterised by two or more individuals pursuing victims via ICT. The computer literacy of the persons in this sub-group ranged from fairly high to high. The perpetrators made numerous threats and utilised spamming, mailbombing, identity theft, and intimidating multimedia to harass their victim. This group also tried to gain information about their target.