Web creates wave of women stalkers

THE internet has led to a surge of women stalkers, the world’s top cyber-psychologist said yesterday.

Mary Aiken, a psychologist specialising in the internet who has worked for Interpol and the FBI, said stalking used to mainly involve men, but women had now begun accessing their victims’ ‘entire lives’.

Speaking at the Hay Festival, she said cyber-stalking was a new type of behaviour carried out by both sexes.

She said real-world stalkers followed their victims around, adding: ‘The motive is the glimpse of intimacy you get just before they close the curtains at night, and typically they are male.

‘But then we see cyber-stalking. They use technology, and can stalk multiple victims simultaneously. The motive is not the glimpse of intimacy, the motive is access to their entire lives. And we see the emergence of female cyber-stalkers.’

Social media websites such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have made it easier to stalk online. Even if a victim removes all their social media accounts or has a private account, a stalker can spy on what they’re doing through their friends and family.