Technology-facilitated stalking and abuse is the use of technology (such as the internet, social media, mobile phones, computers, and surveillance devices) to stalk and perpetrate abuse on a person. 

Such behaviour includes:

• making numerous and unwanted calls to a person’s mobile phone
• sending threatening and/or abusive messages (texting messaging, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook messaging, Twitter)
• hacking into a person’s email or social media account to discover information about them
• hacking into a person’s email or social media account to impersonate them and send abusive messages to family/friends of that person
• using surveillance devices to spy on a person
• sharing, or threatening to share, intimate pictures of a person

There are three primary areas of law relevant to people experiencing technology-facilitated stalking and abuse:

• Protection Orders
• Surveillance and Recordings
• Relevant Criminal Offences

Legal guides

WESNET has published a range of legal guides on four primary areas of Victorian law relevant to people experiencing technology-facilitated stalking and abuse.

WESNET WEBSITE

These legal guides were originally created as part of the ReCharge Project — a collaboration between Domestic Violence Resource Centre, Women’s Legal Services NSW and WESNET in 2015 and were updated by Women’s Legal Service NSW in 2019. View the Legal Guides for other states.