Have you ever been tracked?
When it comes to tracking, many people may first think of tailgating, surveillance and even kidnapping, but with the development of the Internet, the form of tracking is becoming more and more complex, in addition to offline tracking, network tracking (cyberstalk) has also caused many people to suffer.
In the third season of the documentary "Guarding the Liberation of the West", 21-year-old Xiao Liu was tracked by the network many times to call the police, and the film recorded that it was already the scene where the police received Xiao Liu's alarm for the fourth time.
In the show, Peng's harassing text message 丨 "Guarding the Liberation of the West" Season 3
For 3 months, the 36-year-old Peng mou repeatedly harassed Xiao Liu. She not only tracked and monitored offline, crouched in front of the elevator door of Xiao Liu's apartment, but also stole the social account of Xiao Liu's colleagues, and rumored in the company group that "Xiao Liu has a 5-year-old child."
Not only that, Peng mou also beat Xiao Liu upside down in front of the police, repeatedly saying that Xiao Liu sent people to monitor and beat himself, and even insulted Xiao Liu: "He is a cunning bitch, a dead pervert, and logged the software account on my tablet." But in the face of police cross-examination, Peng could not provide any evidence to support her allegations.
This is an extreme case, but the phenomenon of being tracked by the network may be far more common than one might think.
As I write this, I curiously asked my friends if they had ever been stalked and harassed, and it turned out that the vast majority of them had encountered different forms of online stalking harassment. Some people are crazy private messages from strangers, and some people are tracked by ex-boyfriends because of the circle of friends located by the hairband...
But none of these traces were formally processed. My friends' thoughts were almost always "disgusted for a while, and it passed like that, but it was very uncomfortable to think back on."
In the process of psychological services, my peer counselors and I have also encountered helpers who are troubled by online stalking. There are also those who ask for help who have made similar online stalking behaviors in their lives without realizing it, but only vaguely feel that it is not appropriate, and ask for help from a counselor.
So, it's time to learn more about network tracking: what kind of behavior belongs to network tracking? What kind of people are more likely to stick to network tracking? When there are traces of themselves being tracked by the Internet in their lives, how can the victims deal with it?
What is network tracking?
Network tracking refers to the use of the Internet or other electronic means to track or harass a person, group or organization, which includes false accusations, defamation, theft of the victim's network identity, monitoring of the victim's network activities, incitement to harass the victim, collection of victim information, sexual inducement or extortion[
In these repetitive, unwelcome stalking behaviors, the victim experiences intense distress and varying degrees of impaired social functioning.
Taking the case at the beginning as an example, Peng's behavior corresponds to 5 forms of network tracking.
False accusations: Claiming to others in Xiao Liu's WeChat group and residence that he "has children with Xiao Liu".
False Victimization: Claiming that Xiao Liu is the one who harasses and monitors himself.
Collect information from the victims: inquire about Xiao Liu's address everywhere, and the appearance of Xiao Liu in the past 3 months every day "punch card" squatting.
Monitor the victim's online activities: Repeatedly flip through Xiao Liu's Weibo dynamics and ask Xiao Liu in private messages "what is he doing".
Incite others to harass victims: In the WeChat group, Xiao Liu was said to be a "beast, influencing his marriage, hoping that group friends would help him."
Peng Mou framed Xiao Liu in the film for logging in his account on the tablet, and this act of stealing the other party's network identity also belongs to network tracking.
In addition to this, network tracking also includes constantly sending harassing text messages in defiance of the wishes of the harassed. For example, a university professor constantly sends strong sexually suggestive text messages to others, which makes people feel very uncomfortable across the screen.
Under what circumstances are network traces prone to occur?
People who can do online stalking behavior are mostly "unrequited" people.
A survey of 399 online stalking victims showed that 30.1% of the stalkers did not know the victim at all, and 29.3% of the stalkers were the victim's previous partner [2].
Among the stalkers who don't know the victim, many have "idealized" intimate intentions for the victim, believing that they can have ta if they are close enough to the victim.
Studies have shown that many people who commit cyber-stalking crimes engage in different kinds of obsessive relational intrusion behaviors in their lives, such as over-pursuing each other, violating each other's boundaries, and threatening each other [3]. And these behaviors themselves are more likely to appear in one-way intimate relationships.
Perpetrators are more inclined to pursue those who explicitly resist such acts, making it impossible for victims to stop harassment even if they repeatedly refuse. In this relationship, the network tracers a lower level of self-esteem on the one side [4].
They are unable to express their intimate intentions directly. In life, their social skills are also limited, and the environment of non-public and indirect communication on the Internet has created a space for network tracking.
Who is prone to cyber stalkers?
Patients with mental disorders
Some cyber stalkers may be really sick.
In the case of "Guarding the Liberation of the West", after the police investigation, it was found that Peng Mou's multiple relationships were not smooth, and there were currently more obvious paranoid characteristics, accompanied by some psychological problems. Although the police did not explicitly point out Peng's illness, she showed obvious delusional symptoms in the interpersonal process.
Many cyber stalkers think that there is a very close relationship between themselves and the victim. They lack the ability to test reality and can't tell what's true and what's fake.
In addition to schizophrenia, people with paranoid traits and obsessive tendencies are also prone to stalking others and even develop violent crimes.
Anxious attachment type
According to people's characteristics in intimate relationships, researchers divide attachment types into four main categories.
The other three attachment styles are avoidant, safe, and chaotic
Anxious attachment people will show more gains and losses in intimate relationships, always unable to determine the other party's feelings for themselves, need to constantly verify the other half's love for themselves, and are more likely to have a tendency to network tracking.
In my consulting work, I have encountered clients who are troubled by my boyfriend's failure to send official love announcements to the circle of friends, and therefore follow my boyfriend online.
Note: The following cases are shared with the permission of the visitor, and are a vague combination of real cases, and all details and privacy have been blurred.
The visitor, Little C, is always worried that her boyfriend doesn't love him. Trust in the early days of the relationship turned into repeated doubts later on. Little C will watch her boyfriend's Weibo, Douban, and circle of friends dozens of times a day, search like a detective for what the person interacting with her boyfriend is coming from, and ask her boyfriend from time to time whether he has a good relationship with xx.
Once, Xiao C opened a WeChat trumpet and used the identity of her boyfriend's classmate to "remind" her boyfriend to cherish her girlfriend. Later, this matter was inadvertently punctured, which also led to the end of Little C's relationship with her boyfriend.
After the relationship ended, Little C developed a deep sense of self-blame. Little C wanted to log in to her boyfriend's iCloud account many times to check his recent situation, but whenever he had such thoughts, Little C felt that he should not do this, which was very painful. After this series of events, Little C came to the consulting room.
For Little C, her past emotional experience has made her firmly believe that "she is not worthy of love in the relationship", and whether the relationship is stable at the moment depends on the behavior of the other half, not her own feelings and judgments.
In doubt and worry, Little C also often "self-obstacles", processing things that do not exist into the fact that "boyfriends really don't love themselves".
This kind of desire and anxiety about intimate relationships is the reason for Little C's network tracking behavior, and in the process of counseling, Little C gradually recognizes his needs in the relationship, and later stops similar behavior.
How do I stay away from network tracking?
Follow your feelings and protect yourself
When you find that your social status is often looked over, or always receives messages and phone calls from whom you don't know who, you may hesitate, be confused, and feel angry and frightened because the other person is harassing you.