Internet Harassment

Q: I'm confused.I've never understood bringing lawyers, etc. into a case of someone harassing you on the internet, it happens to all of us. Unless it's a male vs. female, sex related, whatever, death threats, etc. what is the point? filter them out of your e-mail, kill file them on ng's... Confused

A: I think general harassment is expected the odd time on the internet because it seems to allow the psychotic tendencies to more easily come out of people. I'm sure that the majority of us who have chatted/participated frequently in public forums have had issues with others harassing us. Most of the time the person will give up and disappear or a simple block can take care of the issue. The thing is that sometimes people take it too far. When people start fearing for their lives and it goes beyond a general annoyance then it is in your best interest to talk to a lawyer. Blocking e-mail addresses is the easy way to get rid

of an annoyance, but what do you do if people start assuming multiple identities and start a massive harassment campaign? Additionally, a lot of information is available online about each and every one of us. Anyone with a little knowledge can locate your name, address and phone number online with very little details about you. Those who do not have the knowledge can easily pay a search service a few dollars to do the dirty work for them. When online harassment moves into offline harassment as well, things can get tricky and the victim starts fearing what is coming next. So in some instances, a lawyer may be necessary for internet harassment in order to stop it once and for all.