Déjà vu, All Over Again: The U.S. ECHO Survey, Cyberstalking and Online Harassment

• In Event: Online Harm, Just a Single Swipe Away!: Harassment, Coercion, and the Internet

Abstract

Cyberstalking and online harassment are pervasive issues which impact on a significant proportion of the population, yet remain difficult to offer comprehensive solutions for — largely because the nebulous nature of the internet is such that new technological developments consistently provide innovative means to engage in deviant behaviors in cyberspace. In 2010-11, the Electronic Communication Harassment Observation (ECHO) project was one of the first instruments to examine how online harassment and cyberstalking was perpetrated, as well as the impact that such behaviors have on those who experience them. This paper explores findings of a relaunched version of the ECHO survey launched in 2024-25, which has been updated to account for current technologies and means of online communication. The presentation will cover pressing current issues in the online harms field, and highlight notable changes in the patterns of online perpetration observed. For the first time, we are also able to compare the experiences of ECHO respondents in the United Kingdom, where the original survey was conducted, with the responses of a sample from the United States.

Authors

• Paul Bleakley, University of Kentucky

• Kylie McCarthy, University of New Haven

• Emma Short, London Metropolitan University