🚨 ONLINE HARASSMENT & CYBERBULLYING
You don’t have to tolerate abuse, threats, stalking, or intimidation online.
Online harassment can happen through WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, X, email, gaming platforms, dating apps, forums, or other digital services.
It can include repeated unwanted contact, threats, abusive messages, impersonation, stalking, doxxing, sexual harassment, publication of private information, or circulation of intimate content.
⚠️ WHAT COUNTS AS ONLINE HARASSMENT?
💬 Repeated unwanted messages
Someone repeatedly contacts you after you’ve asked them to stop.
😡 Abusive or threatening messages
Threats, intimidation, humiliation, or targeted abuse.
👤 Fake/impersonation accounts
Someone creates an account pretending to be you.
📍 Doxxing
Someone publishes your private information—such as your address or phone number—to expose or intimidate you.
👀 Cyberstalking
Someone repeatedly monitors, contacts, follows, or tracks you online.
📸 Non-consensual sharing
Private or intimate photographs/videos are shared without your consent.
🔥 Coordinated harassment
Multiple accounts are used to target, threaten, or overwhelm you.
💻 Account attacks
Someone attempts to access, hijack, or misuse your account to harass you or your contacts.
🛑 IF SOMEONE IS HARASSING YOU RIGHT NOW
1. DON’T ENGAGE
You don’t have to argue with the harasser.
If responding could escalate the situation, stop communicating.
2. DON’T PAY
If someone threatens to publish information, photographs, or videos unless you pay:
🚨 Don’t assume paying will make it stop.
Payment can lead to further demands.
3. PRESERVE THE EVIDENCE
Before blocking or deleting anything, where safely possible, preserve:
📸 Screenshots
🔗 Profile URLs
👤 Usernames
📱 Phone numbers
💬 Messages
📧 Emails
🎥 Videos/images
📅 Dates and times
💳 Payment records
Keep the original files where possible.
Don’t edit screenshots in a way that removes important context.
🔒 4. SECURE YOUR ACCOUNTS
If the harassment involves account compromise:
- Change your password.
- Enable 2FA.
- Sign out unknown devices.
- Check recovery email/phone details.
- Remove unfamiliar connected applications.
- Secure your email account.
🚨 Secure your email first if it is connected to your other accounts.
🚫 5. BLOCK & REPORT
Use the platform’s reporting tools for:
- Harassment
- Threats
- Impersonation
- Fake accounts
- Non-consensual intimate content
- Doxxing
- Hate/abusive content
- Account compromise
If there is an immediate safety concern, don’t rely only on the platform’s reporting system.
👮 6. REPORT SERIOUS HARASSMENT
In India, serious online harassment may warrant reporting to law enforcement depending on the conduct involved.
You can report cybercrime through:
National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
📞 Cyber Crime Helpline
1930 is primarily for financial cyber fraud. For non-financial harassment, use the appropriate cybercrime/police reporting mechanism.
🚨 IF YOU ARE BEING THREATENED
Take threats seriously—especially threats involving:
- Physical violence
- Kidnapping
- Sexual violence
- Home/workplace visits
- Publication of private information
- Extortion
- Blackmail
If you believe you are in immediate physical danger:
Contact local police/emergency services immediately.
Don’t meet the person alone to “settle” the matter.
📸 PRIVATE PHOTO / VIDEO BLACKMAIL
If someone says:
“Send money or I’ll publish your photos.”
🛑 DON’T PANIC.
DON’T:
❌ Pay
❌ Send more photographs
❌ Send OTPs
❌ Give passwords
❌ Meet the person
❌ Delete the evidence
DO:
✅ Preserve the messages
✅ Report the account
✅ Secure your accounts
✅ Tell someone you trust
✅ Report to the appropriate authorities
If intimate material involving a child/minor is involved, do not forward or redistribute it. Preserve identifying information about the account/message and report it immediately through appropriate child-protection/law-enforcement channels.
👨👩👧 IF YOUR CHILD IS BEING HARASSED
Don’t begin by blaming them.
Ask:
“What happened?”
“Are you safe right now?”
“Is anyone threatening you?”
Preserve evidence and report serious incidents.
Most importantly:
Make sure the child knows they can come to you without fear of punishment.
🧑💼 IF HARASSMENT INVOLVES YOUR WORKPLACE
If someone is harassing you because of your employment or professional activity:
- Preserve all communications.
- Keep a chronological incident log.
- Report through the appropriate organisational mechanism.
- Consider legal advice where threats, stalking, defamation, extortion or other unlawful conduct is involved.
⚖️ POSSIBLE LEGAL REMEDIES
Depending on what happened, legal remedies may involve:
👮 Criminal complaint
For conduct that constitutes an offence.
🛡️ Protective measures
Where there is a genuine threat to personal safety.
⚖️ Civil remedies
Depending on the nature of the harm, including certain privacy, reputation or injunction-related claims.
📱 Platform remedies
Reporting, blocking, takedown mechanisms and account restrictions.
👶 Child-protection mechanisms
Additional protections may apply where a minor is involved.
The exact legal provision depends on the conduct, content, victim’s circumstances and evidence.
🧠 DON’T LET THE HARASSER CONTROL THE NARRATIVE
A common tactic is:
CONTACT → INTIMIDATE → ISOLATE → THREATEN → DEMAND
The harasser wants you to feel:
😨 Fear
😔 Shame
🤐 Silence
⏰ Urgency
Break the cycle.
Stop engaging. Preserve evidence. Tell someone. Report.
🧭 ONLINE HARASSMENT EMERGENCY CHECKLIST
- Am I physically safe right now?
- Have I stopped engaging with the harasser?
- Have I preserved the evidence?
- Have I secured my accounts?
- Have I blocked/reported the account where appropriate?
- Have I told someone I trust?
- Have I reported serious threats to authorities?
- If money was demanded/transferred, have I contacted 1930?
- If a minor is involved, have I sought appropriate child-protection assistance?
💙 REMEMBER
YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR.
Don’t let embarrassment prevent you from seeking help.
SAVE → SECURE → BLOCK → REPORT → SEEK HELP
If the harassment includes an immediate threat to your physical safety, treat it as an emergency—not merely an online problem.