Textual harassment

Crank calls, hateful text messages, malicious slander on blogs, stolen pictures, naughty videos ... they seem like part and parcel of being connected digitally. Most of the time, we can just press the delete or block button, and shut out these harassments. At worst, the victims would just change their cellphone number, e-mail address or Facebook account.

Sometimes, such harassment can become more sinister.

No clear signs: Due to the convenience of the Internet, anyone around you could be a stalker and you wouldn’t even have a clue.

Recently, a 14-year-old girl in Johor Baru was blackmailed into having sex with a 19-year-old boy she had befriended via sms. On their first date, he took nude pictures of her and threatened to put them on the Internet unless she has sex with him. Her parents didn’t suspect anything was amiss until their daughter became pregnant.

Like most youngsters, the teenager probably did not dare report her plight for fear of getting into trouble with her parents and authority figures. Furthermore, they are not sure if 40 missed calls in a day or flirtatious sms-es can be construed as harassment.

Well, the police’s advice is this: If it makes you uncomfortable, report it.

On reporting incidents, deputy superintendent of police Mahfuz Abd Majid, a staff officer at the Internet crime investigation Unit, Commercial Crime Investigation Department of the Royal Malaysia Police, said that there is no official yardstick as to what constitutes harassment or stalking, but he advises victims to report such incidents.

“Lodge a police report if you feel threatened. And if you have a suspect in mind you must tell the officer about your suspicions,”

He said that in several cases, the victim had a very clear idea of who was sending nasty SMSes and e-mail, but feigned ignorance because they were embarrassed, mainly because most of the time, the perpetrator turned out to be someone they had had a personal relationship with.

Mahfuz explained that after lodging a police report, the authorities will sit down and talk to the claimant, and ask questions about your social circle, office, or place of study and your lifestyle.

“Normally people from a particular circle will use a certain lingo in their texts or e-mail messages, and from then on we can narrow it down to a specific group of people,” he explained.

“We observe events that occurred leading up to the point of time where the harassment begun as well, which helps us narrow down the list of suspects.”

When they finally have definite suspects, the police then pay them a visit, and confiscate their computer/phone for investigation.

Mahfuz has seen many cases involving crimes committed online and via cellphone, many of which involve cheating people off their money.

“The best you can do is to not disclose personal information about yourself to people you don’t know personally. Do not give out your phone number, address, or even your full name. There have been cases where regular Internet users have been cheated off thousands of ringgit because they trusted someone they met online.”

“It’s easier to cheat when you don’t have to look at a person’s face. The pitfalls in the telecommunications industry are now not only limited to working people, but youngsters as well, as most youths have access to the Internet and a cellphone.”

Mahfuz’s advice for youths everywhere is to not be too trusting. Ignore people you don’t know, and never divulge your personal information to strangers.

Lawyer Sonya Liew advises young people to first, be tolerant of comments that may appear on blogs or e-mail.

“If however, the comments are indecent, false, obscene, menacing or offensive in character, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass, the comments may fall within the ambit of Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (S.233). If such is the case, a police report should be the order of the day,” says Liew.

Section 233 makes provisions for harassment in the online environment. According to this section, if in the event such acts are found to be offensive with the intent to annoy, such acts could be in violation of this section.

For example, if you receive e-mail or texts that are illicit or violent in nature, there is definitely something that can be done about it.

Liew points out that there is no Data Protection Act in Malaysia, which means that there are no laws to stop an entity from buying personal information from banks, credit card companies, departmental stores (through their membership card programmes) and even from our local doctors.

Such information could then be collated systematically to provide a personal social profile of an individual.

The Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Section 233) gives an explanation on the improper use of network facilities or network services.

It states that a person who uses network facilities for any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person is guilty of committing an offence. This includes instances where the perpetrator either reveals or does not reveal his identity and it doesn’t matter whether you respond or not.

To youths everywhere, if you encounter problems similar to Erica’s or Sara’s, you must first tell someone, and if the problem doesn’t go away and you feel threatened, make a police report.

Make sure you save all the evidence and hold nothing back during investigations, as this will aid the authorities in their investigations.

Mahfuz is optimistic about the decrease in crimes of this nature.

“Since the Government made prepaid SIM card registration compulsory, crimes involving the use of cellphones have decreased significantly,” said Mahfuz.

“When people are aware that there is a possibility that they will get caught, they are more reluctant to act on their intentions,” he added.

Easy access: Social networking sites are a lot of fun, but be wary of how much personal information you post on your profile. (is dat my laptop??... :P same design)

Took tis from Star Online..on d blog part..i found it quite similar to wat i encounter...if u all saw d comments i received, u wil noe...i hope dat 'dude' fela wil read this..wakaka!!

careful i report it to police for simply post some annoying comments..