Princess In Cyber World-Part III- Online Grooming

                         Princess In Cyber World-Part III- Online Grooming

We discussed the concept of cyber grooming, the process of cyber grooming, who is at risk, the potential warning signs and how you can prevent it. In this article we will discuss cases of cyber grooming with analysis, cyber bullying, its legal aspects and tips for parents and kids.

Transition from school to college and exposure to social media opens a whole new world of experiences that change the course of your life. These cases revolve around the same.

Case No 1: Ashwini’s Case

It happened around 2004, when social media was newly introduced. Ashwini, a 17-year-old girl had just started with her college. Till 10^th, she had studied in an all girls’ school and this was her first time in a co-ed environment. She soon developed attraction towards boys and wanted to become friends with them. One day, some people from Aptech visited their college for a training session on emailing, chatting and various websites like yahoo.com.

Few days later, Ashwini tried to use these chatting sites to develop friendships with boys and entered an online chat room. There she met a young boy. She was very impressed with his talks and she started liking him. She got so carried away that she started doing whatever he asked her to do. She, who regularly wore jeans and Bermudas, suddenly started wearing full-sleeves salwar suits. Her parents instantly noticed this sudden change. This was not it. One day, she brought a burkha and she started reading namaaz. Her parents were shocked and did not know what was happening. Her mother was very worried and she asked Ashwini what was going on to which Ashwini replied, “Mom I really like this boy, I am going to marry him soon. It’s Friday today and it’s time to read Namaaz. Bye.”

Hearing this, her mom almost fainted in shock. She felt so helpless that she called Ashwini’s aunt and asked her to come home and talk to Ashwini. Sadly, even that did not work. All her friends also tried to explain her that she was making a mistake, but nothing worked.

Two years passed and Ashwini had turned 18 already. One day, she declared to her mother than since she is 18 now, she will get married to that boy and go to Syria. This was the breaking point for her parents. They realized it was time to take police help. So they quickly contacted the police who handed Ashwini over to a counselor. Six months of counseling and strict police action finally brought Ashwini back to her senses.

 Case No 2- Sayali’s Case

Sayali was a 15-year-old teen, studying in class 9. Her father worked with the Army and hence her family transferred from one place to another, every three years. That year, they got a transfer to Delhi and Sayali took admission in Delhi Public School. As a teenager, Sayali was puzzled but excited to be in a new environment, with new friends and teachers. However, as days passed, Sayali’s mother began noticing changes in her behavior. She observed that for most of the day, Sayali would lock herself in the room and sit alone, she would keep talking to someone on the phone, and she would get very emotional over little things or just lash out in anger if someone asked her something.

One day, Sayali’s mother saw that her door was not locked and directly went in her room to talk to her. Alas! She saw Sayali uploading nude photos of herself on the internet! She was shocked and she shouted on Sayali. Sayali looked at her mother and feeling ashamed, she broke into tears. She told her mother how nobody in the school took her in their group, how she joined online chat rooms to make friends and how met a boy there who gained her trust and blackmailed her to upload a nude video of herself.

Sayali’s mother was very disturbed but she decided to help her daughter and told everything to Sayali’s father. They quickly blocked him on the internet, took screenshots of his chats, filed a FIR at Delhi Police and reported it to the Delhi Cyber Cell. The Cyber Cell caught the boy within four days and punished him.

 Now what is cyber bullying?

Where cyber grooming is winning trust and trapping a person by goodwill, cyber bullying is harassment and bullying done by nasty methods. The different types of cyber bullying involve causing humiliation through hateful comments on online platforms/apps, or through SMS or messaging. It comprises posting, sending or sharing negative, nasty or false information/photos about another individual for causing humiliation and character assassination, triggering religious content, issuing threats, and creating fake online identity for illegal reasons.

Legal Aspects

India's cyber laws are largely governed by the IT Act, 2000. The IT Act Sections 66B and 67 state that posting obscene content or pornography on social media is punishable. Posting pornographic material on social media may attract a sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.

Section 67B(c) of Information Technology Act, 2008 also punishes the enticement of children in an online relationship with the purpose of publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act in electronic form. These provisions, however, do not use the term ‘grooming’ explicitly

The Ministry of Women and Child Development had enacted the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) as a special law to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography. Section 13 to Section 15, deal with the issue of child pornography. Section 14 and Section 15 lays down the punishment for using child for pornographic purposes and for storage of pornographic material involving child.

Government has taken a number of steps to be implemented by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to protect children from sexual abuse online. Government blocks the websites containing extreme Child sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) based on INTERPOL’s “Worst-of-list” shared periodically by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is the National Nodal Agency for Interpol.

 Tips for the parents

1. Keep the computer in a common area of the home.

2. Learn how various social networking apps and sites work

3. Talk regularly with your children about online issues and make them understand the difference between good and bad.

4. Build trust with your children.

5. Tell your children not to respond to any cyber bullying threats or comments online and never delete the messages. They act as proofs while taking legal action.

6. Don't overreact by blaming your children and don’t even under react and ignore.

8. Don't threaten to take away your children's phone or computer. 

9. Talk to your counselors.

10. If there are threats of physical violence or the bullying continues to escalate, get law enforcement involved.

Tips for the Kids

1. Don't respond to any emails, app messages, or text messages sent by cyber bullies.

2. Don't be an accomplice by forwarding any of the messages to others kids.

3. Save, take a screenshot and print out all the messages as proof and evidence of cyber bullying.

4. If you are being bullied, tell and adult immediately to get help solving the problem.

#Cyber Law#Cyber World#Cyber Crime#Cyber Security#Cyber Awareness#Dr.Deepti Lele