California legislators are considering a new bill that would extend the state's antistalking laws to the Internet.
The proposed bill (AB 919) is authored by Republican state Rep. Guy Houston and is designed to prevent individuals from using Web sites such as MySpace.com and Craigslist to deliberately incite harassment or abuse against an individual.
Such harassment can include the posting of digital images or messages on Web sites in an effort to cause fear, harassment or harm to an individual, according to an official description of the bill. The measure would allow California law enforcement officials to pursue stalking charges against people responsible for such messages.
More than 40 states already have some form of cyberstalking legislation in place. But most of these laws, including the one in California, deal with crimes involving intimidation and harassment of a person via, for instance, e-mail messages, pagers, phones and cell phones.
AB 919 is believed to be the first state law that extends the notion of stalking to messages and images posted on Web sites, a spokesman for Houston said.
The immediate impetus for the proposal comes from a recent incident in Danville, Calif., where someone posted a photograph and cell phone number of a Danville minor online, along with a sexual solicitation, the spokesman said.
The advertisement was placed in an adult section on Craigslist and invited readers to call the listed cell number "if they wanted to have a good time," the spokesman said. The ad triggered dozens of phone calls, obscene voice mails and messages and "alarmed and scared" the 17-year old victim and her parents, he said. No charges, however, were filed in that incident.
In a similar case earlier this month, a rental home in Tacoma, Wash., was ransacked after an individual believed to be an evicted tenant posted an advertisement on Craigslist inviting people to take whatever they wanted from the unlocked house for free. As a result, people descended on the home and stripped it of everything right down to the electrical fixtures and kitchen sink.
AB 919 will allow for the prosecution of individuals responsible for such acts for the first time, the spokesman said. It is not clear whether new language will be included in the state's existing cyberstalking laws to accommodate the provisions contained in AB 919 or whether it will be passed as a separate law.
Ad Choices