Children who are Stalked: What you Need to Know

When the word “stalking” is searched in google, quite a few results will try to compare stalking to romance, many minimize the harm and others confuse harassment with protection.  Our culture uses terms such as “stalking, creeping/creeper and hanging around” to normalize this real, extremely harmful and scary criminal act.  Due to the availability and use of technology, children are becoming victims and offenders of digital crimes at earlier ages.  This presentation will provide information on stalking including definition, statistics and prevalence, technology and the connection to children used in domestic violence situations.  Links to other crimes such as exploitation, sextortion, revenge porn, sexual abuse, vandalism, identity theft and harassment will also be discussed.

Objectives:

• Define stalking and understand the prevalence in our society

• Identify ways in which youth are using technology that may lead to victimization or perpetration of stalking and digital crimes

• Learn ways to educate youth and parents to prevent stalking or support them through the process of reporting and healing