Online Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment, whether online or offline, is technically defined as unwelcome sexual advances made by an employer or a person who is in a position of power over you (e.g., a teacher or a counselor). However, the term now generally means any sort of unwelcome attention of a sexual nature, including unwanted sexual solicitations. Rather than sticking to the legal definition, we'll use the more general definition in this section.

If you are being sexually harassed or solicited by someone online, you have several options. If the person is a stranger and doesn't know any personal information about you, then you can simply ignore the harassment, block the person, or report the person for his or her behavior to either the site administrator or the service provider.

If someone over the age of 18 is sending you graphic messages, pornographic images, or soliciting you for sex and you are under the age of 18, you can report the person to cybertipline.com. Once you go to that site, click on "Make a Report." Fill out the questions there, and the website will forward the information to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. We highly recommend that you tell a trusted adult about the situation as well.

If you do know the person's identity, or the person has demonstrated that he or she knows yours, click here to go to a section regarding offline sexual harassment; the advice there may be applicable to your situation. On a side note, though, just because someone SAYS he or she knows who you are, doesn't mean it's true. For example, someone may have your IP address and be able to tell you what version of Windows you're running, but that doesn't mean that person knows anything of importance, such as your name, your home address, or your phone number.

As a preventive measure, though, please remember that it's important not to put personal information out there that others can use to target you for sexual harassment. Don't tell people your real name, address, home phone number, cell number, or school; don't tell strangers where you hang out; don't use the same username on every site you join. In other words, don't make it easy for people to target you.

Is there something about your situation in particular that this section doesn't cover? Please feel free to e-mail us - you'll find the address to use on our Contact Us page - and we'll see if we have any information or suggestions that could be more helpful.