Deborah Boehle, whose 9-year-old daughter was a victim of cyberstalking, is suing her former neighbor for $3 million.

While the Internet has brought the world to the fingertips of millions, putting friends and resources just a click away, it also poses new threats to privacy and personal safety. On 20/20 Downtown, Lynn Sherr brings to light disturbing cases of cyberstalking, a phenomenon of online harassment that has the potential to affect Internet users and nonusers alike. “It never occurred to me that the Internet could be used as a weapon,” says Deborah Boehle, who claims her family had been harassed for two-and-a-half years by a man who sent out postings soliciting sex with her 9-year-old daughter. The Boehles were awakened to the dangers of the Web by a phone call at 3 a.m. Though the man on the line asked to speak with their daughter by name, Deborah assumed it was a wrong number and mere coincidence. But when phone calls from men asking for the young girl persisted, followed by a hang-up when asked who was calling or why, Deborah and her husband, Mike, were alarmed. A few weeks after the calls began, a neighbor complained to Mike about his daughter, who had written “hello” with sidewalk chalk on a neighbor’s driveway. Having had other run-ins with this neighbor, Mike suspected this man could be behind the menacing phone calls. Thinking that the Web might be involved, Mike looked online for clues. The Boehles turned to local police, who advised that the family simply get a new phone number and keep their daughter inside. But Mike and Deborah, who wish to conceal their daughter’s identity, moved to a new community and enlisted the help of a neighboring police department’s Computer Crime Unit. They subpoenaed the neighbor’s home telephone records: On every single date and time an Internet posting about the Boehle daughter was made, the neighbor’s phone was connected to his Internet service provider.