Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Cyber bullying: You are just one click away

                                                                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.