Quick Facts

Learn about state laws, statistics, and research on cybercrimes with the quick facts and links below.

Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is the use of digital technologies to monitor, watch, contact, control, threaten, sabotage, isolate, or otherwise terrorize someone, or to damage someone’s credibility or reputation. Perpetrators may use computers, tablets, mobile devices, software, the internet, email, social media, messaging apps, smart home devices, recording devices, tracking devices, and/or other technology. Cyberstalking often co-occurs with in-person stalking or other forms of interpersonal violence like domestic, dating, or sexual violence. It may also be called online harassment, cyber harassment, digital harassment, digital abuse, or technology-facilitated stalking.

80%

of stalking victims report being stalked with technology.

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70%

of college students have experienced tech-facilitated abuse

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Majority

of tech-facilitated stalking victims are pursued by people they know, most commonly by a well-known or casual acquaintance.

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NDII

Nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII) involves someone sharing or threatening to share private, sexually explicit images or videos of another person without their consent. It can include images originally obtained without consent (hacking phones, using hidden cameras, or recording sexual assaults), as well as images/videos that were initially consensually obtained (within the context of an intimate relationship) and later distributed without consent. NDII can include both real images/videos and those created with or altered using artificial intelligence (AI), also referred to as “deepfakes.” NDII may also be called: image-based sexual abuse, image abuse, non-consensual distribution of intimate images (NCII), non-consensual pornography, or revenge porn.

1 in 7

people in the US have had intimate images shared without their consent.

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1 in 3

LGBTQ+ people have experienced image-based sexual abuse.

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$8M

of losses from sextortion reported to the FBI by Americans in just 7 months.

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Tech-Facilitated Abuse

Technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) is the use of technology to coerce, harm, sabotage, attack, threaten, or intimidate someone. The person misusing the technology may be known to the target (a current or former intimate partner, an acquaintance, or a coworker), or a stranger. The person engaging in abuse might conceal their identity or be clear about who they are. TFA may also be called: technology-enabled coercive control, digital abuse, or tech abuse.

1 in 7

people who experienced technology-facilitated abuse were also physically harmed by the same abuser.

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41%

of U.S. adults have personally experienced harassment through technology

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81%

of young victims of online dating abuse also experienced in-person dating abuse.

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