Pushing the limits of harassment

In Talking Cock the Movie, a parody portrayed a young man who had joined his father's loan-shark business and hatched the idea of using e-mail messages to make demands for repayment. Such notices would otherwise have required the pasting of notices on one's door. Some past practices have progressed in recent years.

A recent report tells of a Singapore architect who was harassed by an unknown caller who made hundreds of phone calls to his home and his mobile phone in a matter of days. The police are investigating this matter while the High Court also granted an application to compel the telcos to reveal the caller's information, if any was available.

Harassment will increasingly become a social issue. In the old days, where carrier pigeons and horse carriages were the only form of communication, you could not send thousands of messages without getting found out. With increase communications access and more sophisticated tools, the ability of stalkers to intrude, harass and intimidate will increase exponentially. I am sure that parties intent on stalking others will hatch up better schemes and push the limits.

The response now is reactive--complaints are made and lawsuits launched--only the empowered and informed are able to take some steps to protect themselves. If, as recent examples in South Korea, China and the USA have showed, harassment is suffered in silence especially by those with a public reputation and much to lose by going public or by the young and naive. Therefore, laws not only need updating but education needs to be carried out to protect against this new threat.