It's called one of the most disturbing new breeds of crime online, and Al Gore wants to do something about it. He's expected to release a Justice Department report on cyberstalking, a report which says, apparently, that many law enforcement agencies "underestimate" how widespread and severe the problem actually is.
The vice president - and front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000 - was also expected Thursday to call for stronger anti-cyberstalkng laws in San Diego, where he was meeting with cyberstalking victims at San Diego State University, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Cyberstalking is a very serious new problem confronting us in the Information Age," Gore said in a statement. "As more and more Americans are going online--particularly our children--it is critical that they are protected from online stalking."
Usually, cyberstalking involves e-mail or other threats sent over the Internet, the Times says, with the most terrifying case in Los Angeles earlier this year - a 50 year old security guard tried to use the Web to arrange the rape of a woman who scorned him.
Former Encino security guard Gary S. Dellapenta pleaded guilty in April to posting online messages in the intended victim's name saying she had fantasies of being raped, the paper says. He faces up to six years in prison, and his prosecutor was expected to be at the San Diego State meeting Gore was attending.
Reports indicate the vice president may well push for federal laws being amended to ban transmitting any communication aimed at threatening or harassing any other person or putting the intended victim in fear of death or physical injury. He's also said to be planning a call upon states to review their own cyberstalking laws.
California passed the first known state anti-cyberstalking law last year. The Justice Department report says less than a third of the states have cyberstalking covered under current laws.
According to the Times, the report laments the absence of comprehensive, nationwide data on the extent of cyberstalking in the United States but asserts that anecdotal evidence suggests the crime is on the rise. In Los Angeles County, for example, the paper says, the district attorney's office has numbers showing some 20 percent of six hundred stalking cases involved e-mail or other electronic communications.
