In Canada, cyberstalking is defined as a pattern of criminal harassment by electronic means, which causes a person to have a reasonable fear for their life or safety of person. Cyberstalking may include repeated telephone calls with the intent to annoy, or repeated contact through an electronic device with the intent to annoy.

Cyberbullying, also a form of criminal harassment, involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others. Cyberbullying may take many forms including spreading false information causing harm to a person’s reputation, sharing images of a person without his or her permission, and pressuring others to exclude someone from a group or community.

In practice, cyberstalking and cyberbullying are stalking or bullying involving the use of a computer, Internet, or e-mail, or chat-rooms. As the use of the Internet for everyday communications and social networking has increased, so too have the incidents of these types of criminal harassment through the Internet.