You thought bullying only happened in school, right? Well, welcome to the internet world where jerks hide behind proxies and anonymous comments to prey upon women. Yes, this is really happening.
I am not writing this to scare anyone. I think the majority of people on the internet mind their own business. It is the minority of people out there that are making some of our lives miserable. I am not sure if you have heard the story of Kathy Sierra. If you haven’t, please click the link. Yes, that is really happening.
Good Morning America did a short piece on cyber stalking this morning. See it here:
To me, it seemed more a fluff piece than anything, but I guess that is how you bring it to the nations attention. You start slowly. Kathy Sierra was interviewed for this. My friend Kat was also. She has had a cyber stalker for the past 5 years. Yes, 5 years and the authorities will not do anything to help her. He has threatened to turn her into Child Protective Services, threatened her, threatened her children, called her father a pedophile, and I could go on and on. I will not publish the site that he runs, because I do not want to drive traffic to him. However, in reviewing his site, I found several of my other online friends on there. One of them took down her blog last night due to finding herself on his hit list (she did put it back up this morning). There is also a piece written by the Washington Post which explains the situation much better.
I wish I could say I am not afraid of this type of behavior. In the internet world today, you can locate anyone (see privacy post below). With a new baby on the way, I don’t need this kind of crap in my life. I luck out. I have not become a target (yet). I would love to say that I would stand up to these a$$holes who do this. However, if my life and my kids lives are being threatened, I think I may do what Kathy did and pack my bags and close my blog. I give Kat a ton of credit for putting up with crap for 5 years now.
We cannot allow these creeps to do this to others on the web. I ask that all of you put the ribbon that Beth created on your site. Blog about this. The only way this is going to stop is if people take a stand and make these lowlifes realize that this is not acceptable! Or use this one: 
Thanks for the post! I appreciate all the posts and diggs, and statements women bloggers are making about this issue.
Very well said!!
That is so sad to see what happens to people. It is amazing how quick people can take great tools and turn them towards others in a negative way.
It is so horrible that internet stalking happens today. It's sad that people have found new ways to terrorise people with the advancement in technology. Cyber bullying is no less serious than actual bullying. I think these people are incredibly brave for putting up with this. Thank you for blogging about this.
I started posting online approximately a year ago. For the past 6 months I have been stalked by a small group of individuals who have managed to flood the search engines with false negative info in my RL name. Consequently, I will probably be seriously affected for many years to come. I had intended to leave the internet, but have decided not to.
I began a new blog a few days ago. Thanks for giving this topic some attention, and I am placing the ribbon on my blog.
nicole
I think this happens more than people admit too. I am lucky — I haven't had a problem yet.
I am glad to see you have not quit blogging. IMO, they win when that happens.