Opinion: Prevention is better than cure, even in the digital world

Cyberstalking of women and children has emerged as one of the more widespread forms of online threats. — Technology vector created by vectorjuice - www.freepik.com

A young woman, an avid social media user like millions of others, gets a “Follow” request on Instagram one day from a profile that carries some of her pictures, on which some people have made some unsavoury comments. She sees, to her horror, that the profile is being followed by some of her real-life friends.

Worse, the “follow” request is accompanied by a deluge of lewd messages in her inbox. She blocks the profile and requests her friends to unfollow and report the account immediately.