A new report, handed to MPs, has said that social networking sites such as Facebook are failing "in their duty" to provide enough support to victims of cyberstalking and other online harassment.
The first British study into cyberstalking and related harassment online found that over 60% of the 353 British victims surveyed did not receive support from the websites or authorities.
The National Centre for Cyberstalking Research at the University of Bedfordshire conducted the research.
The authors of the report said that social networking sites should develop a clear process which states actions and time frames for action against online stalkers.
University of Bedfordshire Prof Carsten Maple told The Telegraph, "They really have a duty to their consumers."
"There needs to be a clear process so users know how to report harassment and a time limit so a site must respond within a set number of days."
The victims of cyber stalking reported symptoms similar to real world stalking, such as sleep disorders, stress, depression and fear for safety of self and near ones. The men who were surveyed cited online reputation as their concern.
However, nearly half of those surveyed said that they were being harassed by unidentified persons or complete strangers.
Report co-author Dr Emma Short said, "We were amazed by how traumatised some people were who responded to the survey."
"One of the cases we spoke to couldn’t go to work because her stalker was completely unknown to her.
"She wouldn’t stand on the station platform in case she got pushed in front of a train as they were threatening to do."
The authors wrote that it may be tempting to dismiss cyberstalking and harassment as somehow less real than ‘traditional’ stalking methods, but the effects on the victim can be very real.
The authors said, "The psychological effects can be devastating, producing verifiable psychological trauma and damage, regardless of whether the victim ever actually meets their harasser.
"One clear message from the data collected is that many of the victims of cyber harassment are frustrated with the lack of help and support they feel is available."
A Facebook spokesman said that "nothing is more important" than the safety of the people that use Facebook.
He added, "We’re constantly working to find new ways help people stay safe, such as the reporting tools accessible across almost every page of the site."
Facebook has been embroiled in online harassment cases for a few years now.
In February this year, Officers from Thames Valley Police said that it will send letters to parents of "Facebook bullies" in a crackdown on teenaged Facebook bullies harassing fellow students.
The harassment had reportedly led some youngsters to commit suicide.
A month later, Facebook added a new option to contact a "trusted friend" to its safety centre so that bullying victims could report online bullying to friends, as well as site moderators.
Facebook also said that it had simplified its safety centre and improved its guides for adults and young people.
The changes were announced at the White House during an anti-bullying conference hosted by President Obama and his wife Michelle in March.
Recently, a survey by Consumer Reports found Facebook had 7.5 million underage users in the US alone, a violation of the site’s policies.
The Consumer Reports’ "State of the Net" survey found that over five million of the users were under age 11, adding that more than 5 million US households were exposed to threats such as virus infections and identity theft. Facebook also has one million children who have been bullied on the site, Consumer Reports said.
There are also concerns of safety of personal information on the social networking site.
In May, IT security company Symantec had revealed that Facebook could have inadvertently leaked users’ personal information to third parties and advertisers over the past few years.
