This article breaks down who faces the highest cyberstalking risk, why they are targeted, and how laws are trying to catch up.
Cyberstalking Is Not Random
Cyberstalking is not just “someone being creepy online.” It is repeated, unwanted digital contact or monitoring that makes a person feel watched, threatened, exposed, or unsafe.
It can include constant messages, fake accounts, GPS tracking, spyware, doxxing, threats, image-based abuse, impersonation, or using social media to monitor someone’s life. In many cases, it overlaps with domestic abuse, sexual harassment, coercive control, and offline stalking.
The pattern is clear: cyberstalking does not affect every group equally. Young people, women, LGBTQ+ people, students, people with disabilities, and financially vulnerable victims are repeatedly overrepresented in the data.
The blunt truth: technology has made stalking easier, faster, cheaper, and harder to escape.
What Counts as Cyberstalking?
Cyberstalking usually means repeated unwanted behaviour using digital tools.
That can include:
- Repeated unwanted texts, emails, calls, or direct messages
- Monitoring someone through social media
- Tracking location through phones, apps, vehicles, or Bluetooth trackers
- Creating fake accounts to contact or watch someone
- Publishing private information, also known as doxxing
- Threatening to share intimate images
- Sending sexual, abusive, or threatening content
- Impersonating someone online
- Using spyware or shared passwords to access accounts
This matters because different countries measure cyberstalking differently. Some classify it as stalking. Others treat it as harassment, cyber abuse, coercive control, image-based abuse, or domestic violence. That makes global comparison difficult.
But even with inconsistent definitions, the same pattern keeps appearing: young people, women, and LGBTQ+ people face higher risk.
Young People Face the Highest Cyberstalking Risk
Young people are heavily exposed because their lives are more digitally visible.
They use social media, messaging apps, dating platforms, gaming platforms, shared location features, and online communities more frequently. That gives stalkers more entry points.
A 2025 UCL-led study found that in England and Wales, people aged 16 to 24 had the highest chance of being cyberstalked, at 2.4%, compared with 1.0% among people aged 45 to 59. The same study found cyberstalking rose from 1.0% to 1.7% between 2012/13 and 2019/20 — a 70% increase.
That matters because cyberstalking can start early. The CDC reports that nearly 58% of female stalking victims and 49% of male stalking victims first experienced stalking before age 25.
Why Young People Are More Exposed
Young people are not “careless.” They are exposed to more digital contact points.
Common risk factors include:
- Public social media profiles
- Dating app contact
- School, university, or workplace networks
- Shared friend groups
- Location tagging
- Image-sharing pressure
- Group chats and anonymous accounts
- Lower confidence reporting abuse
Cyberstalking thrives where access is easy and boundaries are ignored.
Women Are Targeted More Often — and the Harm Is Often More Severe
Gender is one of the clearest fault lines in stalking data.
In England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics reported that around one in five women aged 16 and over had experienced stalking since age 16.
In the United States, CDC data reports that more than one in five women and about one in ten men have experienced stalking in their lifetimes.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics also found that in 2019, females were stalked more than twice as often as males: 1.8% compared with 0.8%.
This does not mean men are not victims. They are. But the scale, frequency, fear, and context often differ.
For women, cyberstalking is frequently linked to:
- Former partners
- Domestic abuse
- Sexual harassment
- Threats of physical harm
- Non-consensual image sharing
- GPS tracking
- Impersonation
- Coercive control
Technology has not created misogyny, control, or abuse. It has given perpetrators more tools.
LGBTQ+ People Face Higher Risk — and Are Still Undercounted
LGBTQ+ victims face a specific kind of danger: cyberstalking can be used to threaten identity, privacy, safety, employment, family relationships, and community belonging.
The UCL-led cyberstalking study found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people were disproportionately affected compared with heterosexual people.
This risk is not only about unwanted contact. It can include threats to:
- Out someone publicly
- Expose private messages or images
- Target them with hate speech
- Harass them through anonymous accounts
- Contact family, employers, or community groups
- Weaponize dating app information
The data gap is also serious. Many national surveys still do not properly measure trans and gender-diverse victims. That means some of the most vulnerable people may be missing from official statistics.
That is not a small problem. If victims are not counted properly, laws, police training, funding, and support systems will miss them too.
Students, Renters, and Financially Stressed Victims Are Also at Higher Risk
Cyberstalking is not only about age, gender, or sexuality. It is also about power.
Australia’s 2021–22 Personal Safety Survey found that stalking prevalence declined with age, and women aged 18 to 34 had the highest stalking prevalence among women, at 6.3%.
Australian reporting also showed higher stalking rates among women who were studying, renting, living in cities, or experiencing financial stress. Women with cash flow problems had a stalking rate of 7.9%, compared with 2.8% for women without cash flow problems.
That matters because financial stress can reduce escape options.
A victim may know they need to change phone numbers, move house, leave a relationship, replace devices, get legal help, or secure accounts. But those steps cost money, time, privacy, and support.
Cyberstalking becomes more dangerous when the victim has fewer ways to get away.
People With Disabilities Can Face Added Vulnerability
People with disabilities can face increased risk because perpetrators may exploit dependence, communication barriers, isolation, assistive technology, or difficulty accessing police and support services.
In Australia, stalking data and disability-related crime reporting point to higher vulnerability across several abuse categories, especially for people with psychosocial, learning, or understanding disabilities.
This is important because cyberstalking prevention advice often assumes every victim can easily:
- Change passwords
- Replace devices
- Leave home
- Contact police
- Understand app permissions
- Identify spyware
- Store evidence safely
That is not always realistic.
Support systems need to be accessible, trauma-informed, disability-aware, and practical — not just digital safety checklists written for people with full independence and resources.
Public-Facing Women Are Increasingly Targeted
Women in public life face a specific version of online violence. Journalists, activists, politicians, creators, academics, human rights defenders, and public commentators can be targeted because they are visible.
UN Women’s 2026 research warns that online violence against women in public life is becoming more technologically sophisticated, with AI, anonymity, deepfakes, sexualized abuse, and coordinated attacks increasing the harm.
This is not just “mean comments.” It is often designed to silence women.
The abuse can include:
- Threats of rape or death
- Deepfake sexual images
- Doxxing
- Swatting
- Coordinated harassment
- Stalking across platforms
- Attempts to damage employment or credibility
The goal is usually control: make the victim afraid to speak, publish, participate, campaign, or exist publicly.
The Risk Pattern Is Clear
| High-Risk Group | Why Risk Is Higher | What the Data Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Young people | More digital exposure, social media use, dating apps, location sharing | 16–24-year-olds had the highest cyberstalking chance in UCL’s England and Wales study. |
| Women | Gendered harassment, intimate partner abuse, sexual threats, image-based abuse | CDC data shows more than 1 in 5 US women have experienced stalking. |
| LGBTQ+ people | Threats of outing, hate abuse, identity-based targeting | UCL found LGB people were disproportionately affected. |
| Students | High online visibility, shared communities, dating/social pressure | Australian data shows elevated stalking among women who were studying. |
| Financially stressed victims | Fewer escape options, housing pressure, dependence | Australian data shows higher stalking among women with cash flow problems. |
| Public-facing women | Visibility, misogyny, coordinated abuse, AI-enabled attacks | UN Women warns online violence against women in public life is escalating. |
The point is blunt: cyberstalking follows vulnerability, visibility, access, and power.
What Is Being Done About Cyberstalking?
The UN Is Building a Global Cybercrime Framework
The United Nations Convention against Cybercrime was adopted by the General Assembly on 24 December 2024. It aims to strengthen international cooperation, prevention, and electronic evidence sharing for serious cybercrime.
That matters because cyberstalking often crosses borders. A perpetrator, platform, server, victim, and evidence trail may all sit in different jurisdictions.
But a treaty is not an instant fix. It still depends on countries implementing laws, training police, funding support services, and protecting human rights.
The EU Is Criminalising More Forms of Cyber Violence
Directive (EU) 2024/1385 addresses violence against women and domestic violence. It includes cyberstalking, cyber harassment, cyber incitement to hatred or violence, and non-consensual sharing of intimate or manipulated material.
This is a major step because it recognises that digital abuse is not separate from real-world violence.
It also pushes EU countries toward better data collection, which matters because poor data leads to weak policy.
Australia Has a Dedicated eSafety Reporting System
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner allows people to report adult cyber abuse, cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and illegal or restricted online content.
For image-based abuse, eSafety can help with removal and threats to share intimate images. It also advises victims not to pay blackmailers or give them more material.
This is one of the clearer national models because it gives victims somewhere specific to report online harm outside the normal police pathway.
The US Has Strong Data, but Reporting Remains Low
The US has important federal and state-level stalking laws, but reporting remains a major issue.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that only 29% of stalking victims reported the victimization to police in 2019.
That is a huge gap.
Victims may avoid reporting because they fear escalation, are not believed, lack evidence, cannot identify the stalker, depend on the perpetrator, or do not think police will treat online abuse seriously.
What Still Is Not Working
Legal Protection Is Still Uneven
UN Women reported that fewer than 40% of countries have laws protecting women from cyber harassment or cyberstalking. That leaves 44% of the world’s women and girls — 1.8 billion people — without legal protection from this form of digital abuse.
That is the central global failure.
Cyberstalking is borderless, but protection is not.
Police Systems Are Still Catching Up
Cyberstalking evidence can be technical, messy, and spread across platforms.
A victim may have screenshots, usernames, burner accounts, deleted messages, spoofed numbers, VPNs, cloud access logs, tracking devices, or intimate image threats. If police are not trained to understand digital evidence, victims are left exposed.
The result is predictable: victims document everything, report repeatedly, and still struggle to get protection.
Platforms React Too Late
Most major platforms have reporting tools. That does not mean they work fast enough.
Victims often face:
- Slow response times
- Automated decisions
- Repeat fake accounts
- Weak enforcement
- Inconsistent takedowns
- Poor escalation for threats
- Little transparency after reporting
A stalker can create a new account in minutes. Victims can spend months trying to remove the damage.
That imbalance is part of the problem.
What Victims Should Do Immediately
This section is not a replacement for legal advice, police support, or specialist victim services. But these steps can help preserve safety and evidence.
If You Are Being Cyberstalked
- Do not confront the stalker if it may escalate the situation.
- Use a safe device the stalker cannot access.
- Change passwords from that safe device.
- Turn on two-factor authentication for email, banking, social media, cloud storage, and messaging apps.
- Check account recovery settings for unknown emails, phone numbers, or devices.
- Review location sharing on phones, maps, social media, smart watches, vehicles, and family apps.
- Check for tracking devices such as Bluetooth trackers or unknown devices linked to your accounts.
- Screenshot and save evidence with dates, times, usernames, URLs, and message headers where possible.
- Report abuse to the platform and keep confirmation records.
- Tell one trusted person so you are not handling it alone.
- Contact police or emergency services immediately if there are threats, physical stalking, weapons, sexual extortion, doxxing, or domestic violence risk.
- Contact a specialist support service for stalking, domestic violence, LGBTQ+ safety, image-based abuse, or cyber safety.
Evidence to Preserve
| Evidence Type | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Screenshots | Shows the content and pattern of abuse |
| URLs | Helps platforms and investigators locate posts |
| Usernames and handles | Tracks repeat accounts |
| Dates and times | Shows escalation and frequency |
| Call logs | Proves repeated contact |
| Emails with headers | Can help identify technical origin |
| Device alerts | May show tracking, login attempts, or spyware |
| Witness messages | Shows third-party contact or reputation attacks |
Do not delete everything in panic. Preserve evidence first if it is safe to do so.
The Bottom Line
Cyberstalking is not random. The people most at risk are often those who are more visible, more digitally exposed, more socially targeted, or less able to escape quickly.
Young people face higher exposure. Women face higher rates and more gendered harm. LGBTQ+ people face identity-based threats and serious data gaps. Students, renters, people under financial stress, people with disabilities, and women in public life face added vulnerability.
The world is responding. The UN has adopted a global cybercrime convention. The EU is criminalising more forms of cyber violence. Australia has a dedicated eSafety system. The US has stronger prevalence data and existing stalking laws.
But the response is still behind the threat.
Too many victims are undercounted. Too many laws are outdated. Too many police systems lack digital training. Too many platforms react only after damage is done.
The fix is not one thing. It is stronger law, faster platform enforcement, better police training, survivor-centred support, accessible reporting, and digital safety education that starts before the damage happens.
Cyberstalking is real stalking. Digital abuse is real abuse. And the people most at risk need protection that moves as fast as the technology being used against them.