Harassment & Stalking
Online harassment can take many forms, from repeated unwanted messages and abusive comments to someone persistently contacting, monitoring or targeting you online.
Sometimes, repeated online harassment may also be a form of stalking or cyberstalking.
If someone is making you feel threatened, distressed or unsafe online, you don't have to wait for the behaviour to get worse before taking it seriously. There are steps you can take to protect yourself, save evidence, and report what's happening.
What is online harassment and stalking?
Online harassment is unwanted behaviour carried out through the internet or technology that causes someone distress, fear or alarm.
It can happen through social media, messaging apps, email, online forums, dating apps, gaming platforms and other online spaces.
Online harassment can include:
Repeatedly sending unwanted messages, emails or comments
Contacting you after you've asked someone to stop
Creating new or fake accounts to continue contacting you after being blocked
Posting abusive, threatening or intimidating comments
Repeatedly posting about you or encouraging other people to target you
Impersonating you or creating accounts in your name
Spreading personal information about you online
Contacting your friends, family, colleagues or other people connected to you
Following you across different social media platforms or online spaces
When can online harassment become stalking?
Stalking is a form of harassment involving repeated, unwanted, and or fixated behaviour.
Stalking doesn't have to involve someone physically following you. It can happen completely or partly online, sometimes referred to as online stalking or cyberstalking.
Online stalking can include someone repeatedly contacting you, monitoring your social media or online activity, publishing information about you, pretending to be you online, accessing information about you, or using other people to contact or target you.
Sometimes individual incidents can seem minor when looked at on their own. It is often the pattern of behaviour and the impact it has on you that is important.
If someone is repeatedly finding ways to contact, monitor or interfere with your life online, particularly after you've made it clear that the contact is unwanted, you may want to seek specialist advice about stalking.
What does the law say about online harassment and stalking?
Unlike online bullying, harassment and stalking can be criminal offences in the UK.
In England and Wales, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 covers offences relating to harassment and stalking.
Harassment generally involves a course of conduct, meaning behaviour occurring on more than one occasion, which amounts to harassment and which the person responsible knows, or ought to know, amounts to harassment.
The behaviour doesn't have to be exactly the same each time. For example, repeated contact could involve a combination of social media messages, emails, posts or other forms of communication.
Stalking is a form of harassment and can include behaviours such as:
Repeatedly contacting or attempting to contact someone online
Publishing material about someone online
Pretending that content or messages online have come from that person
Monitoring someone's internet, email or other online communications
Watching or spying on someone online
Depending on what has happened, other laws may also apply, particularly where the behaviour involves threats, controlling or coercive behaviour, intimate image abuse, hate offences or harmful communications.
What does the Online Safety Act say?
Harassment, stalking, threats and abuse are included within the priority illegal harms covered by the Online Safety Act.
The Online Safety Act places legal duties on regulated online services to assess the risk of priority illegal offences taking place through their services and to put appropriate measures in place to reduce those risks.
This is particularly relevant to adults experiencing online harassment because, unlike harmful behaviour that may simply breach a platform's rules, some harassment and stalking behaviour can cross the threshold into illegal content or activity.
Platforms also have their own community guidelines or terms of service, which often prohibit harassment, stalking, behaviour.
This means you can still report harmful behaviour to a platform even if you're unsure whether what is happening is a criminal offence.
How do I report it?
If you're experiencing online harassment or stalking, there are some steps you can take:
Save evidence
Keep evidence of what's happening before deleting content or blocking accounts. Take screenshots and save messages, usernames, profile links, URLs and dates and times where possible. If the behaviour is happening repeatedly, keeping a record of individual incidents can help show the wider pattern of behaviour.
Report the content and accounts
Use the platform's reporting tools to report the relevant messages, posts, comments or accounts. Choose the reporting reason that most accurately describes what is happening, such as harassment, stalking, threats, impersonation or abusive behaviour. If someone creates another account after you've blocked them, save evidence of the new account too.
Think about your online privacy
Review the privacy and security settings on your accounts. You may want to limit who can see your posts, location, friends list or other personal information. Check what information about you is publicly available online and consider whether location sharing or location tagging is switched on across your apps and accounts.
Be aware of your actions
Changing the way someone can contact or view you may sometimes cause them to change their behaviour or move to another account or platform. A specialist stalking service can help you think through the safest approach for your circumstances.
Consider reporting it to the police
If someone is repeatedly harassing, stalking or threatening you online, you can report the behaviour to the police. You don't need to be certain which criminal offence may have been committed before asking the police for help.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999.
Already reported it to the platform?
If you have reported harmful content to a platform and you are unhappy with the response, we may be able to help you understand your reporting options and what you can do next.