RonganaNath
Today’s
world is fast-paced and if you are not catching up with it, then you are a
total outcast. So how do you catch up? Apart from the latest trends, technology
is another aspect to be accepted among the cliques of the people around. With
the growth of the technology, we have seen wonderful results as well as a
rampant rise of unwanted or unethical things called cyber bullying and
trafficking. Have you ever been insulted, harassed, been called names or teased
online? Then, it is palpable that you are one among the various victims of
cyber bullying.
Basically,
at some point of time we all have been a part of it, either as the victim, as
the bully or as a mere spectator mutely enjoying the show and chuckling while
disagreeing to this kind of online spats. People with fair knowledge about this
topic, often brag about how the tweens and teens are unaware about the harms of
what they do online but, no, in India there has never been any narrative about
cyber bullying and trafficking and hence men, women and children alike are
active participants and victims of this. It is rather a shocking fact that
despite India having less internet reach, it recently ranked third in the
global cyber bullying list with Indian teens leaving their American and
Australian counterparts behind with about 52% of them having experiences of
cyber bullying.
“The teens
I met here are very energetic to work for the cause of cyber bullying but when
I asked them if they have ever been a victim, no body raised their hands to
talk about it. It cannot happen. They are too apprehensive to talk about their
own experience”, says Parry Aftab, Head of WiredSafety.inc which works on cyber
security and cyber bullying, in her recent trip to India.
Studies
have also found that a whopping 80% are aware of the outcome but due to sheer
alacrity to post things online and no one to dissuade, especially the Indian
parents, who no way care what their children are doing online has induced to
serious perils. Indian parents are seemingly ecstatic if their child turns out
to be an expert in social media with them blowing the trumpet about how swiftly
their ward operates Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et cetera, and not even
thinking that their child can be in Tinder and Snapchat too which are racy in
nature and most importantly how their child is being treated online.
India saw a
massive anonymous spit-spat with the Facebook confession pages which brought
out a bully from every teenager when they started hurling abuses to someone
they don’t like with their identity hidden, making it hard to track that who
confessed the particular lines. It gave an ample rise to cyber bullying with
many institutions bringing down the pages but then again it is never the
children or the parents who came forward with the complaints.
Then again
one might ask how complaining can teach the accused a lesson when there is
currently no law dealing with cyber security in India. The Cyber Crime Cells of
various states merely update information about what to and what not to do
online to avoid being a victim of cyber bullying but seldom anyone visit these
websites.
When
someone complains to the police about cyber harassment, the police bring the
crime under other existing crime of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Recently,
Jassi, a young architect from New Delhi saw a guy in her Facebook profile
misusing her pictures and using nasty languages when she confronted him. This
went on till Jassi reported the case to the Delhi Police and they nabbed the
culprit quickly and made him confess to Jassi in front of them that he will
never repeat this kind of nuisance. But after a gap of few months, he started
doing the same thing with Jassi fearlessly by staying in another state. This
actually shows the loopholes which is giving the bullies a fair streak of
courage to carry on with this kind of audacity.
But the
question that arises is that why people are so much into making their life
public even after knowing the consequences of the act? The answer is quite
simple, daft and was mentioned in the beginning part only. The acceptance and
the so-called likes from people whom most of us even don’t know properly. It
means if one child clicks a steaming pout and posts it on the social media, you
will automatically be tagged unsocial or boring if you are not following suit.
And why not, when the parents find it all cool and okay even after knowing how
photos can be easily accessed and morphed?
The
practice of cyber bullying in India will prevail if there is no communication
on this and the first should start with the parents itself, who are the sole
reason for their child’s online life.
