Rav Wilding's tips for dealing with stalking
- Published
The Office for National Statistics released its annual crime survey for England and Wales, which says that 1.4 million people have experienced stalking in the last year alone.
Stalking is a form of harassment, but it can be difficult to define.
Thankfully, there's a handy acronym: FOUR.
Stalking behaviour is
Fixated
Unwanted
Obsessive
Repeated
The behaviour only has to be repeated twice for it to become a police matter, should you choose to report it.
This also includes cyberstalking, which has been a crime in Scotland since 2010, external, in England and Wales it was 2012, external, and 2022, external in Northern Ireland.
Because it's such a situational crime and can be hard to define, it's important to trust your instincts. If it's making you uncomfortable, then reach out to your friends and loved ones, or the National Stalking Helpline, external for clarification.
Stalkers are also weaponising GPS tracking devices like AirTags, SmartTags and Chipolo. To be clear, tech companies are not at fault here. Software and regulations are being continually improved to try and combat this misuse. But unfortunately it's becoming more and more common in stalking cases. One of the features that's been added to try and combat this issue is a tool to notify your phone of unknown tracking devices nearby which may be trying to connect.
To receive these notifications, you may need to opt-in.
On Apple devices:
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, and turn Location Services on.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services, and turn Find My iPhone on.
Go to Settings > Bluetooth, and turn on Bluetooth.
Go to Settings > Notifications, scroll down to Tracking Notifications, then turn on Allow Notifications.
Turn off Airplane Mode. If your device is in Airplane Mode, you don't receive tracking notifications.
You can find out more here, external.
On Android devices:
Open your device's Settings app.
Tap Safety and emergency and then Unknown tracker alerts.
Turn on 'Allow alerts.'
You can find out more here, external.
You may also want to switch location services off for certain apps which display your location to friends or contacts - lots of social media apps have this features as standard. You can find out how to do that on Apple devices here, external and android devices here, external.
If you do think you or someone you know are being stalked then check BBC's Action Line for support - you can find some helpful organisations to contact here.
