LONDON: Cyberstalking is now more common than physical harassment, according to new figures due to be released next week, with many victims finding themselves pursued by complete strangers online.

The first study of its kind to look at the extent and effect of cyberstalking, taking in social networking sites, email and mobile phones, has revealed the profile of perpetrators to be radically different from those who pursue victims face-to-face.

Victims surveyed by Echo (Electronic Communication Harassment Observation), at Bedford University, England, reported that their harassers were more likely to be a complete stranger or a casual acquaintance than a former partner.

Another major finding was that nearly 40 per cent of cyberstalking victims are men. Past studies have identified women as much more at risk from face-to-face stalking.

Most of the victims surveyed were aged 20 to 39, although ages ranged from 14 to 74, with teenagers reporting social networking sites as the environment in which they were most likely to be harassed.

Dr Emma Short, psychologist and co-author of the study, launched last September, said the crime was not taken as seriously as it should be: “There is a lack of understanding of the impact of this behaviour. One of the biggest questions was, 'Is there psychological harm?' Worryingly, a third experienced this. Not just stress, but a clinical record of psychological harm.

A victim was bombarded with vivid images of violent rape. It is often unclear what the stalker aims to get out of it, other than causing “misery and distress”, she said.

The pattern of harassment is different between male and female victims, she said, with men targeted by strangers more than women. Around 37 per cent of men were stalked by a stranger, compared with 23 per cent of women.

Only 4 per cent reported being stalked by a former partner, compared with victims of face-to-face stalking, where around half are former partners, according to Echo.

The largest category of all was that in which the perpetrator was unknown to the victim, who had no idea how they were targeted and never found the perpetrator's identity. One in five said the offender targeted them via social networking sites and 16 per cent via blogging forums. Only 4 per cent came from online dating.

Short, who surveyed 250 victims though a questionnaire, said while it is clear that a third of all victims reported clinically recognised symptoms of PTSD, men and women often reacted differently.

“For women the fear is of physical violence to themselves and then to their families or children. For men, they are afraid of damage to their reputation.

“The population who harass online are different to the population already understood as harassers by the police and the legislators, so the risks are unclear.”

Echo is launching a website at beds.ac.uk/echo which goes live on Monday.

The British Crime Survey 2006 estimates up to five million people experience stalking each year, but there are no official statistics on the percentage cyberstalked.

Last week MPs called for an overhaul in the laws governing such crimes, so that both stalking and cyberstalking is legally defined. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the law most used to deal with stalking, has not been updated since the explosion of social media, and does not include online stalking.

At the launch of a parliamentary campaign on the issue, most victims reported that they were unable to get the police to take it seriously; that police found it extremely difficult to gather evidence or lacked an understanding of how best to use the law. —Dawn/Guardian News Service