ABSTRACT
The Internet and computer-mediated communications (CMCs) have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life around the world. Individuals use email, instant messaging, texting, and social network sites such as Facebook to communicate with others for social and business purposes for hours a day (Zickuhr, 2010). As a result, individuals can now have a robust social life that involves both digital and real-world experiences (see Baudrillard, 1998; Burkhalter, 1999; Ebo, 1998; Garcia, Standlee, Bechkoff, & Cui, 2009; Holt, 2007; Miller & Slater, 2000; Turkle, 1995). People now share a great deal of information about their personal lives through publicly accessible web sites and social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace (Décary-Hétu & DuPont, 2012; Patchin & Hinduja, 2007; Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Ybarra, 2006; Zickuhr, 2010). Forums and chat rooms enable near-real time exchanges of information for communities centered around everything from various sexual fetishes (Durkin, 2007; Durkin, Forsyth, & Quinn, 2006; Jerin & Dolinsky, 2001; Maratea, 2011; O’Halloran & Quayle, 2010; Roberts & Hunt, 2012), white power and hate-group movements (Castle & Chevalier, 2011; Schafer, Mullins, & Box, 2014), and a host of other deviant or criminal behaviors.
