Recently released Raleigh search warrants revealed a local investigation into online harassers who called police to a youth’s home and his Raleigh high school after he refused to follow the group’s orders, which included carving a username into his arm.
That raises an important question. How do families and communities protect teenagers and younger kids from aggressive and sometimes illegal acts such as online doxing or swatting?
One place to start is to understand why it’s becoming more common, experts say.
For a year or more during the COVID-19 pandemic, many students relied on computers and other devices to connect with the outside world.
The practice shifted the idea that people met online should be treated as strangers, said Kathryn Rifenbark, director of the CyberTipline for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the perpetrators are located all over the globe, as well as their victims.
“But in today’s world, so many of those connections do happen online. So kids feel very comfortable with those that they meet online,” Rifenbark said.