Stalking Online An Invasion of Privacy Essay Example

Stalking Online: An Invasion of Privacy Essay Stalking Online: An Invasion of Privacy BY ABACAS Stalking Online A Invasion of Privacy Privacy laws are applicable to everyone. Report Prepared for Assessment Legal Studies 2013 Introduction Australian Privacy Laws have been challenged to include the changing use of the internet that has seen a huge insurgence in the use of social media that facilitates a form of a stalking for users who are in reality advanced users of the internet with capabilities above the normal person knowledge in using the internet to Stalk or to Cyber Bully their victims causing sincere harm to a percentage of our community. We will write a custom essay sample on Stalking Online: An Invasion of Privacy specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Stalking Online: An Invasion of Privacy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Stalking Online: An Invasion of Privacy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer This report will show the many reasons we have to research, identify and change the way we deal with Stalking and Cyber Stalking and the increasing use of online scams that invade our privacy as well as the privacy of our children. Our research will ultimately allow us to lobby for the government to amend the Privacy ACT. The Privacy Act There has been a slow legal argument against cyber stalking and any progress towards a national approach to cyber stalking has been met with a lack of knowledge and understanding by : 1. Australian Police 2. Federal Police 3. Dept Communities(Docs,DISH) 4. Judiciousness,Prosecutors) 5. Legal (lawyers,Barristers,legal aid) 6. Community Support Groups Most computerized Stalking has caused the Australia Government to closely monitor the Privacy ACT (1988) to be able to make amendments to the Act that currently seem to be inadequate in protecting a community, that appears to know they are being criminally attacked but lack the ability to be able to control it through contacting the police or other government agents such as the Police, the Federal Police or other Government Agencies. Because the Privacy Law are very compelled it is unclear to he average Police Officer trained to protect a community through various forms of strategies to keep up with technology that changes daily. A good example would be that you have a couple hours spare in a day or night and you sign up to Backbone to share stories or communicate with your friends and family and because you are new to social networking you are advised to network with groups that interest you and a friend of a friend asks to Joins your network and you believe because you being security minded and dont want to expose yourself to anybody you check the person UT you are about to friend, as soon as you click connect that person you have be friend has downloaded every single picture from your photo albums because you neglected to make them private or you Just did not understand how to use the settings, within the hour of Joining your new friend has also obtained the names of your children your brothers and sisters and even the names of you best friends. You life proud of your life, you have never been involved with any crime or have been affected by crime that you have not even heard about because you cannot understand why anyone would want to steal your childrens pictures or contact your est. friend to tell them you are a bad parent, you know that you are being stalked but you are not sure what to do about it Your friends family and even strangers have witnessed that someone is stalking you and has been sent threats or undue attention being told you have been rude or abusive to attract the attention and you feel helpless and you approach the police with the appropriate paper work , the police will take a quick look and unless there are pornographic images or death threats will tell you to block this person from your friends list even though you know who it is here they live and their contact details, they send you away with taking no action, what the police have done is what the Stalker has predicted and then repeats the abuse agai n and again until you take the law into your own hands because the police are not interested , in reality they are not trained, they have better things to do, they may be advise you to take civil action but it can be proved that civil action is not going to stop a stalker or cyber bully because the crime being committed . Law Enforcement the First Step The Law Police officers are trained under become very confusing and unclear cause of consistent changing of technology then becomes UN reliable to police. Though we do have the ability to interpolate remedy we still have yet to change the Privacy Act surrounding internet Stalking and Cyber Bullying. Police Nationally approach any kind of Internet Stalking with skepticism due to not really knowing if a crime has been committed and rather approach the crime with a warning rather than with an investigation, despite a national call to increase a action to internet crimes little has been advanced to protect families. Stalking was first legislated against in Australia in the mid-asses. While much previous research has investigated the psychological characteristics of offenders, and the impact of stalking upon victims, relatively little research has examined police and court practices in dealing with thisnew crime (Dry Emma Gillie 2000) The Act: What Needs Changing (Middleton Brock, 2013) l lost my home, I lost my identity and had to have my name changed. Nanette told viewers to the BBC Insight programmer when she openly told of her desperate attempts to have the police investigate a man that was stalking her. Privacy Laws do need to be reviewed and government agencies like the police do need to be trained in how to apply them to crimes like Stalking or online Cyber Bullying. Appropriately when a mother or Father observes a stranger observing their daughter or son on a social network internet site and sending threatening or abusive messages you would assume that it would be a crime and that the police being the first point of contact would act for the safety of the child, it is a common believed thought process that there is a danger we are told that the person could be grooming our children contact the Police. Unfortunately Police are neither trained or are they allowed to investigate the thousands of complaints reported daily that has seen parents believe they are being ignored by a crime that is dangerous on the outset and more than likely the first crime ever to affect their inner family boundaries, and a father must protect the family at all costs despite the negative deter the danger away from the family. The Failure of a investigation has seen the online stalking / Cyber Bullying crimes exacerbated into a more serious crimes where parents have taken the Law into their own hands, a good example of this was the cent Logan Racial war where Logan City Police did not investigate the crime of a brick being thrown through a car window and the residents feared for their safety took the law into their own hands. The same aspect of fear is causing select members of our community to become victims or a lack of policing and a lack of community support simply because we do not know how to address online stalking and Cyber Bullying or online Scams. (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011) In 2010-11, 6. 2 million households had broadband internet access, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This statistic is a guide only and a indicator that every day more Australians become communicative on the internet and use social networking websites to: 1. Communicate with Family 2. View News Currents Affairs 3. Homework 4. Research 5. Make New Friends 6. Pay Bills 7. Shopping These are Just a small example of how anybody in our community could use the internet to communicate that offers a feedback and that is where a difference of opinion or a direct way that a internet user can be picked out by an experienced online cyber bully who acts only to cause harm and fear within a environment of Cyber Space or to confuse a victim into handing over money. Every day in Every City of Australia including small country towns a Judge is faced with a civil action where the complaint was made on a social networking internet site such as Backbone or You Tube. Mostly every complaint was ignored by the Police except to deliver the summons to appear in the Magistrates Court, It costs Just $90. 00 to bring an action in the Magistrates Court but in reality it costs about $2000 or more per attendance to address an issue that usually was caused by an experienced internet user that has seed the court system in a civil way to Justify their stalking or cyber bullying, increasingly most online social networking criminals suffer a serious mental illness and rely on a disability pension to support their day to day activities . Even though a cyber bully may have had hundreds of criminal complaints made against them police do not act because their training is insufficient and untested, even some police are affected by Cyber Bullying and can do little to stop the threats Australians Can Stop Stalking and Cyber Bullying With the correct lobbying and awareness strategies a community can focus on the robber of what internet Stalking is, what Cyber Bullying, is and to ensure all Police and Government Agencies are trained as part of their induction into being a Police Officer to identify online Stalking and the related Crimes, to treat Cyber Crime as a serious crime, to offer support services as well as remedy be it by investigating the crime or referring it to the appropriate investigative agency. (Laptop. Smartened. Tablet, 2013) In order to use many online services like Google, of that service. But how many times have you actually read these terms and conditions and do you really know what you are agreeing to? When We care Enough we will Change the LaW'(Pete Geary. 013) lobby a community to change the Law and the Law will be changed, Australians have been busy learning how to use the internet and to learn ways they can best utilities the internet into their everyday lives and internet security is a subject most Australian Households would be very keen to act upon , keeping up is an effort and understanding the technology makes it difficult to make a positive arrangement in how they will use the internet and what precautions they may take to understand their security and how they are meant to be used, sadly e dont yet have community services that can sit beside us and tell us if we are doing the right processes needing to keep us or our family safe but we can be assure that soon there will be virtual security guards protecting us from the criminals ready to destroy our bonds, our safety and our feeling of well being. The very same attitude is related to our Laws as we do not have a confident Law in place that provides us with protection from Cyber Bullys/ Stalkers, Cameras and more, You cannot safely post pictures to your family social networking site without any photographed or scammed from retrieving it to put to their own use. To change the law we need to lobby our concerns to our political representative who shall carry our concerns to the law makers, who will promote the research needed to remedy ways we can train and retrain law enforcement and community support groups to deal with the after affects of online stalking cyber bullying and or infringements such as slander defamation and trademark copy write infringements The crime is Stalking, Cyber Bullying a data base can be set up to identify serial complaints from a national Data base, including a international data base which can be accessed by Police by a simple internet search and if the offender is known to police then a investigation should take place to ensure that the complainant is taken seriously and that their fear is dealt with, the serial stalker must be identified and charged to bring it to the attention of law enforcement and community support groups, Legal Aid should be available to cases where stalking and cyber bullying has affected a persons ability to represent themselves in situations where stalking and cyber bullying has caused civil action due to the non-investigations of crimes that were committed .