If your child is being stalked online, move in this order: secure their accounts, preserve every message and profile as evidence, then report to local police. Internet stalking of a child is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, and the maximum prison term rises by five years when the victim is under 18.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261B – Enhanced Penalty for Stalkers of Children The sequence matters. Deleting the stalker’s messages before you capture them is the single most common way parents accidentally weaken their own case.
First Hour: Lock Accounts, Keep the Record
Change the passwords on every account your child uses: email, social media, gaming platforms, anything with messaging. Turn on two-factor authentication wherever it’s offered. Open the privacy settings on each account and restrict who can message your child, see their profile, or view their location. If the stalker has been tracking your child through a shared app or a GPS-enabled service, cut that access now.
Do not delete anything the stalker has sent or posted. The instinct is to scrub this person off the device. Resist it. Those messages, comments, and profiles are your evidence, and once they are gone they are hard to recover. Block the stalker’s known accounts only after you have captured the communications. A block stops new contact; it does not preserve what already happened.
Talk to your child calmly and tell them, more than once, that none of this is their fault and they will not be in trouble for anything they sent, said, or shared. Children who fear blame hide ongoing contact or quietly delete messages on their own, which destroys the record you need.
How to Preserve Evidence That Police Can Use
A police report moves faster when it arrives with a documented pattern attached. The goal is a clear timeline showing repeated, deliberate conduct aimed at your child, with the originals intact.
Screenshots and URLs
Screenshot every message, comment, post, and profile tied to the stalking. Make sure the sender’s username or phone number is visible in each image. Save the direct URL of every offending profile and page separately, because profiles can be renamed or deleted at any point. If the stalker is using multiple accounts, capture each one.
Email Headers
If email is involved, save more than the message body. Every email carries header data that includes the sender’s IP address, which investigators can use to identify the sender. Save the header information as a PDF or text file. Do not delete or forward the original emails from the account that received them; law enforcement needs the originals in place to verify authenticity.
An Incident Log
Keep a written log. For each incident, record the date, the time, the platform or method, and a short description. This timeline is what establishes the pattern prosecutors need. Incidents that look minor on their own carry weight when they sit inside a documented sequence. Keep everything in one folder, backed up in a second location.
What the Law Treats as Stalking
Stalking has two legal ingredients: a pattern of behavior, and the intent to harass, threaten, or cause serious emotional distress.2Legal Information Institute. 34 USC 12291(a)(30) – Stalking A single hostile message is harassment but generally does not clear the stalking threshold. The conduct must be repeated, must serve no legitimate purpose, and must be the kind of thing that would make a reasonable person afraid or severely distressed.
Online, the pattern can take several forms:
- Persistent unwanted contact across social media, email, text, or gaming platforms, especially after being told to stop.
- Surveillance through fake profiles that monitor the child’s activity, or through spyware and GPS-enabled apps.
- Intimidation in the form of threats, humiliating content, or false accusations posted publicly.
- Doxing, meaning the publication of the child’s home address, school name, or other private details.
- Account intrusion, including attempts to break into the child’s accounts or impersonate them.
Federal Penalties When the Victim Is a Child
The main federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, makes it a crime to use the internet or any electronic communication service in a pattern of conduct that places someone in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury, or that causes substantial emotional distress.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking Because the internet is a facility of interstate commerce, most online stalking falls within federal jurisdiction.
The base federal penalty is up to five years in prison.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence When the victim is under 18, § 2261B adds up to another five years, so the maximum rises to ten.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261B – Enhanced Penalty for Stalkers of Children A fine of up to $250,000 can be imposed as well.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3571 – Sentence of Fine If the stalking causes serious bodily injury, the sentence can reach 20 years. Stalking someone while violating a protective order carries a mandatory minimum of one year.
The child enhancement has one carve-out. It does not apply when the offender is also a minor, or when the victim is 15 to 17 years old and the offender is no more than three years older.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261B – Enhanced Penalty for Stalkers of Children It is designed to keep conflicts between close-in-age teenagers out of the enhanced range.
State Laws
Nearly every state has its own stalking or cyberstalking statute. The classifications vary, but the victim’s age is almost always an aggravating factor that pushes the offense from a misdemeanor to a felony. Some states also allow charges for related conduct such as electronic harassment or unauthorized computer access. When the stalking crosses state lines or runs through the internet, federal and state charges can proceed in parallel.
Where to Report
Start with your local police department. Bring everything: screenshots, URLs, email headers, and the incident log. Ask for a case number and the name of the officer or detective assigned. Local police can open an investigation immediately and, when interstate communication is involved, coordinate with federal authorities.
The CyberTipline at NCMEC
If the stalking involves any sexual element, including sexual messages to your child, requests for sexual images, or exposure to sexual content, file a report with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children through its CyberTipline.6National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. CyberTipline Reportable conduct includes chatting online with a child about sex, unwanted sexual messages sent to a minor, and any form of sexual exploitation.7National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. CyberTipline – Frequently Asked Questions NCMEC analysts review each report and forward it to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Internet providers and social media companies are also required by federal law to report child sexual exploitation material they discover to the CyberTipline.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2258A – Reporting Requirements of Providers If a platform has already flagged content from the stalker, a parallel report may be in the system.
One boundary worth knowing: the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is often suggested as a general cybercrime channel, but IC3 itself directs crimes against children to NCMEC.9Internet Crime Complaint Center. Internet Crime Complaint Center Home For stalking without a sexual component, local police remain the primary channel, and they can refer interstate cases to the FBI.
Reporting to the Platforms
File a report with every platform the stalker has used to contact your child. Use the platform’s built-in reporting tools rather than only blocking.10StopBullying.gov. Report Cyberbullying A block hides your child from the account; a formal report flags it for review and creates a trust-and-safety record that can be subpoenaed by law enforcement. Screenshot the confirmation of each report. If the stalker spins up new accounts after being banned, report those too. The habit of creating replacement accounts is itself evidence of persistent, intentional conduct.
Getting a Protection Order
A civil protection order, also called a restraining order or no-contact order, legally bars the stalker from contacting or approaching your child. As a parent or guardian, you can petition on your minor child’s behalf. The process varies by jurisdiction but usually works the same way: you file a petition describing the conduct, a judge reviews it, and if the evidence shows a threat the court issues the order.
Many courts issue a temporary order quickly, sometimes the same day, based on your petition and supporting evidence. A hearing for a longer-term order follows, typically within a few weeks, where you present your case and the other party can respond. The documented timeline and screenshots are what the judge actually relies on; general descriptions rarely carry a hearing. Filing fees are waived in many jurisdictions for stalking and domestic violence cases, so ask the clerk. Violating the order is a separate crime, and under federal law stalking while violating a protective order carries that one-year mandatory minimum.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence
Telling the School
If the stalker is a classmate, a student at a nearby school, or anyone otherwise connected to the school community, notify the administration. Schools have a legal duty to address harassment that affects the educational environment even when the conduct starts off campus, provided it causes or is reasonably likely to cause a substantial disruption at school. When the harassment is sexual, Title IX obligations may also be triggered, requiring a formal investigation.
Put the notification in writing. Describe the behavior, explain how it is affecting your child at school, and ask specifically what steps the school will take. The written record matters if the school fails to act and you need to escalate to the district or file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Looking After the Child
Children who are stalked online often show anxiety, withdrawal from friends and activities, trouble sleeping, irritability, and physical symptoms such as headaches or stomach pain. Watch how your child uses their devices. Some start checking obsessively; others avoid their phone entirely. Both reactions signal distress.
Short, frequent check-ins work better than long interrogations. Say clearly, more than once, that the stalking is not their fault. Avoid sudden changes to routine, school, or device access without talking them through first; abrupt changes often raise a child’s anxiety rather than lower it. If symptoms persist beyond a few weeks, or if your child shows signs of depression, emotional numbness, or self-harm, bring in a therapist with experience in adolescent trauma. Family involvement in the process tends to strengthen the result.
Suing the Stalker
Criminal prosecution is the government’s call, but you can also bring a civil lawsuit against the stalker on your child’s behalf. A civil case can seek monetary damages for the harm done, including therapy costs, emotional distress, and any security measures you had to take. The standard of proof is lower than in a criminal case, so a civil suit can succeed even if prosecutors decline charges or a criminal trial does not end in conviction.
Civil litigation is expensive and slow, and it requires identifying the defendant. If the stalker is anonymous, an attorney may need to subpoena platform records to unmask them. Lawyers who handle privacy or harassment cases often offer a free initial consultation and can tell you whether the likely recovery justifies the cost of the suit.