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Privacy thy name is………. child: understanding the responsibilities of parents to protect the privacy of children in the digital platforms by Dr.Debarati Halder

DOI: 
10.13140/RG.2.2.19360.70406

In the first week of February, 2025 a short audio-visual content showcasing an embarrassed, extremely traumatized child with his face under blankets became viral on Instagram. It essentially found its way in other social media platforms too. The audible contents and the accompanying texts suggested that the child apparently spent a little fortune for accessing online games. No parent of middle class family would be happy for such behavior of children. Parents of this child were neither! they expressed their frustration and anger by publicly shaming the child by capturing the ‘scolding’s’, child’s crying face, attempts to hide under the blanket and (not to forget) images of other children who were visibly perplexed as whom to support. The issue became viral and attracted netizens attention. Many schooled the parents for such unethical exposure of the child. But, can the parents be really made liable for exposing an embarrassed child in such manner if we see this from various existing laws in India?
How a child becomes victim of over exposure by parents /lawful guardians?
Let me take you, my readers back to 2012, when Aishwarya Rai, former Miss World and a Bollywood celebrity was famously photographed trying to cover her infant daughter’s face by every mean. As a parent she had tirelessly tried to protect her daughter from paparazzi and social media entrepreneurs who attempt to make a fortune by showcasing the images of celebrities from different angels. Aishwarya’s daughter grew up to attract limelight and became subject-matter of content creators who started sharing fake news and even health-updates about her. The child was not exposed by her parents. But she continued to get exposed on different internet platforms without her or her parents’ consent.
In this case, clearly, the parents (who are her legal guardians) are not liable for her over exposure and potential harms of impersonation, privacy infringement, doxing, defamation, cyber stalking, subjecting her images for the purpose of online child sexual abuse materials etc.
But now consider the case of the young boy (mentioned above) who was shamed by his parents on social media handles for spending family fortune for online gaming. The facial image of the boy is identifiable and the exposure has been made by the parents/adult family members. The boy was visibly NOT CONSENTING for photographs.
In numbers of social media profiles, parents continue to upload the images and audio-visual contents of their children and India is no exception. But majority of the parents may not be aware that this very act may expose and over expose their children to different patterns of victimization. Interestingly parents of Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta are aware of different kinds of online victimsiation, including patterns of online child sexual abuse materials. But they may not be able to accept the truth that they themselves can become tools for online victimization for their children.
Bossing over the “consent” and privacy of the children
In general, parents are given the profile of “In-Charge” data principal under S.2j of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The Clause defines the data principal as individual to whom the personal data relates and where such individual is a child , includes the parents or lawful guardian of such a child and where the individual is a person with disability (whether adult or child), includes her lawful guardian, acting on her behalf.
But not to forget, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 or the Draft Digital personal Data Protection Rule, 2025 are not the only legal documents that are giving such “supremacy” for parents to decide about the ‘consent’ of the children to share their data including images (which carries vital personally identifiable data). Laws and statutes like Constitution of India, Indian Contract Act, Indian Penal Code, Indian Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Evidence Act (and now the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Adhiniyam, Transfer of Property Act, Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act and so many like this give the parents of minor children key responsibilities to handle their ‘consent’. Until the child turns 18, it is mandatory to accept consent of the parents as that of the child. But there is only one exception to this rule: in case the child is abused or the child feels threatened or uncomfortable due to the act of her/his parents /legal guardians, the court is bound to take note of the consent of the child to relocate her/him with different ‘guardian’. We get to see this in some child custody cases and in cases of child sexual abuse. This is because the philosophy of child welfare is glaringly dominated over the demand for supremacy of parents over the opinions of children regarding their sense of comfort and security through Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in matrimonial dispute cases and in cases, cases of corporeal punishment of children, cases of willful negligence and traumatizing of children by abandoning them and/or by suppressing their basic needs of food , shelter and physical security and in cases of child sexual abuse cases.
Apparently we get to see execution of such ‘bossing over’ mentality of the parents in cases of choice of dresses and accessories, choice of schools, forcing the child to participate in the family functions where he/she is not feeling comfortable and so on. But this bossy decision making nature of the parents (which in India and in many other jurisdictions are accepted as a social norm) may not play good for the safety and security of the children always.

Why privacy of child matters
Imagine when the little child photographed adorned in dresses and accessories chosen by the parents gets bullied on Instagram by her/his peers shaming the appearance and the dresses that may not suit their taste! Imagine when the child is targeted in real life as the child of parents who are YouTube controversy creators! Imagine if the child is constantly targeted by unknown people because his/her parents are social media influencers and use him/her as example for best parenting tips….
One day the parents will leave internet because of their age, fragile cognitive power or because of their wish to withdraw from the internet. But the contents created with their children (without even considering for their consent) will remain floated on internet. Research , experience and experiments have proved that contents which may have attracted high rate of views, discussions , do not ‘evaporate’ even if the original content creator pulls down the content from their database. There are many ways to download, re-share, forward and recreate the old contents. Minor children, their images and audio visual recordings along with their parents therefore may remain on the internet not only during the lifetime of the ‘children’, but also during the life time of the next generation of such ‘children’. The child in question will never be able to enjoy the right be left alone . his/her medical conditions, mental health conditions, school life, exam records, likes and dislikes will be matters of public affair and the no third party, but his/her own parents will be solely responsible for such privacy infringement of the child.

Can the child sue the parents for privacy infringement in digital platform?
The answer is YES. Even if the parents are in-charge data principal of the children, if the acts of the parents infringe the privacy of the children or exposes the children to grave threat, children can take legal action against their own parents. Not to forget, Protection of children from sexual offences Act, 2013 makes the scope of the Act wide enough to include “whoever” as the perpetrator if the same has violated the laws including creating/distributing etc., of child porn materials. S.67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended in 2008) also sings the same song. This will be possible if the child takes the complaint to the police, judicial magistrate or the Child Welfare Committee. Not to forget, the Constitution and child welfare centric laws make the State a ‘guardian’ when the natural/legal guardian of the child exposes him/her to dangerous situation which may cause physical and mental trauma. A careful reading of the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act along with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita may also suggest that children can access justice against their own parents if the latter plays crucial role in violating the child’s basic rights including privacy.
The denouement
While parents can have the right to decide for the best interest of the child, the decision may not always fetch best results. Awareness is growing for safer internet for children and adults. But adults must be responsible enough to create safe and healthy examples for children.
Put yourself in the place of the child and think how he/she would be treated for his/her digital presence.
Acknowledge the future risks of online harms even if you are a cyber-security guru.
Take timely action to protect the privacy of the child.
Prepare the child for the BIG BAD world like a pro to have sigma energy.

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Dance of death on the cyber space: Legal trouble for the content creators and viewers for “death” videos. by Dr.Debarati Halder

Image credit: Internet

In a recent Instagram post shared by some Instagram handles in early July, 2024, a boy of 16 is seen collapsing in the school corridor in India due to heart attack and  consequently he passes away. Previously, another video clipping of a young girl jumping to her death in Kota, Rajasthan apparently due to study pressure shook the net-world. Apparently the clippings were seemed to have been taken from CCTV cameras and later they  became viral. This is not the first time that the sudden deaths due to heart attacks or deaths due to accidents or violent attacks of minors and adults were shown in the internet platforms specially in India. Noticeably images of such sorts of mishaps were accessed from surveillance cameras affixed in the buildings, public roads and traffic signals. These unfortunate images (in most of the cases, clear facial image of the victim may not be available) are generally shared from one user and then the clipping lands in the hands of content makers and influencers who may share this for the purpose of profit making whereby they may get revenue from the internet platforms like YouTube on the basis of ‘views’ .The most disturbing fact in this context is that, the intermediaries or the websites through which such contents are shared, may not suspend  the content from public viewing even though it may continue to re-victimize  the family members of the victim.

There are three issues that everyone must understand before watching such “dying” videos  :

  1. The clipping of “death” carries crucial information about reasons for death, nature of death and place and time of death. This may also provide crucial health information, traffic violation information or even any sort of information about criminal activities. It can also provide information about the accountability of the stakeholders who were responsible for providing first aid, preventing adults and children from committing suicides or for preventing any sort of criminal activities in the premises where death has occurred.
  2. No one other than the authorized agent can cull out any specific clipping from the chain of images that are the being recorded in any cctv camera. Such accessing and taking out of specific images must be done with proper authorization which may permit not only accessing and taking out specific images from the chain of the images, but also for downloading and archiving the same for specific legal purposes.
  3. Every accidental death and abnormal death need to be documented by the police and analyzed by the courts for understanding the cause of the death, compensating the victims and punishing the offenders who may have caused the death.  In doing this, the courts need to analyze forensic report for the death as well as the forensic report of the images that have been captured, the virtual footprints on the images for understanding the broader cause and effects of the death.

Now let us understand how these above mentioned issues are connected with statutes including Information Technology Act 2000(amended in 2008) which may make the unauthorized interceptor fall in legal trouble: S.69(1) of the Information Technology Act , 2000(amended in 2008) says as follows:

Power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource.–(1) Where the Central Government or a State Government or any of its officers specially authorised by the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, in this behalf may, if satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or for investigation of any offence, it may subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the appropriate for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the appropriate Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt or cause to be intercepted or monitored or decrypted any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.

Now, concentrate on the words “ Central Government or a State Government or any of its officers specially authorised by the Central Government or the State Government”: these very clearely suggest that any data captured by computer and digital information communicator can only be intercepted and decrypted by the authorized agencies only. Again, let us look into the words  …. “it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or for investigation of any offence, it may subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the appropriate for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the appropriate Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt or cause to be intercepted or monitored or decrypted any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.” This may mean that accessing the specific image and downloading and sharing the same may not be considered a private act for profit gain or name gain.

Let us now understand how such sharing of “dying” may disturb the court proceedings and victim’s right to justice: courts may need to analyze the entire content (this will be considered as electronic record now) for understanding the reasons for death and the responsibilities of the concerned stakeholders: the electronic record may need to be admissible as a good evidence as per S.63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam Act, 2023. Once the content/electronic record becomes eligible as an admitted evidence, it may help the court to reach conclusion for causation of death. The chain of digital footprint may also help the court to understand whether the electronic record has been decrypted and modified illegally to add or delete any valuable information. This electronic record may include text messages or voice or any other graphic added to the content or electronic record. The court may also need to analyze the associated comments of the creator, conveyer and the bystanders.

 Generally, the comments of the bystanders (who are popularly known as “viewers”) may also lead the court to understand how the victim may have survived, how the victim died, the situation/environment which may have killed the victim. The comments of the viewers may also lead the court to predict probable prohibitions and punishments.

As we may understand from the above, accessing and decrypting any CCTV camera image of deaths or death like real life incidences therefore can be considered as punishable offence and bystanders can also be considered answerable. Contents depicting real life death should not be commercialised. It becomes the responsibility of us the civil society members to respect the laws and legal norms on internet and help the intermediaries to take a note of such misuse of the platforms by reporting such contents, rather than sharing it for profit and name gain.  

Please don’t violate the copyright of this writeup. Please cite as Halder Debarati (2024).Published in https://internetlegalstudies.com/2024/07/08/dance-of-death-on-the-cyber-space-legal-trouble-for-the-content-creators-and-viewers-for-death-videos-by-dr-debarati-halder/ on 08-07-2024

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The Princess and her photos: a modern day fairy tale of internet kingdom by Dr.Debarati Halder

Photo credit: internet

We the common civilians are mostly obsessed with the tales of princes and princesses, their kingdoms, their lifestyles and obviously, their richness, the wealth they display and the wealth of wisdom that is displayed by the media. Today majority of the countries have democratic setup with an elected president as the head of the State. Some countries in Europe, Asia and Africa however have monarchial systems with Kings and Queens as the head of the State. These monarchs ascend the throne as a hereditary right. Post second world war, some monarchs have been ousted either to accommodate the best in the line or to bring in a democratically elected head of the state. In either cases, the lifestyle of the royal families attracts lot of public attention always. It is alleged that this public inquisitiveness is monetized by professional photographers: the more the images of royal women are captured the more these photographers gain monetarily. The tragic death of Diana, princess of Wales is a glaring example. Images of her last moments in the car crash are still floating in the internet and these are heavily searched, giving more profits to those creators who keep on sharing such images with extra touch of editing.

Recently another royal woman, the present Princess of Wales has attracted unwanted attention for an image featuring herself with her three children including future heir to the throne. Apparently Catherine (popularly known as Kate) had undergone for an abdominal surgery which many speculated to be connected with cancer. Post-surgery, Kate and her family had to break this speculation so that neither her family nor the  country may be targeted for an unwanted bash on the health and lifestyle of the Royals which may lead to many diplomatic and  political speculations. All these were finally triggered with a single photograph.

What was the issue: the photograph, shared by the official handles of  Prince and Princess of Wales showed a happy mother holding two children with her hands  and  her three children happily laughing with her. Photo scrutinizers figured out that the photo has been edited and the presentation suggests that the mother’s hand and the daughter’s waist do not match in an ideal way. There was some more editing which raise questions as to whether the children were really sitting with the mother in the outdoors for the happy photograph. Kate later apparently shared an apology to accept that the photograph was (badly) edited. This further raised the speculation of the health update of the Princess and the authenticity of the information shared by the social media handles of the couple (prince and princess of Wales).

What is the legal issue: After the tragic death of Diana, princess of Wales, her son Prince of Wales had emphasised for privacy of the family like any other common civilian family. The introduction of UK Data Protection Act, 2018 made the right to privacy a significant right for all including members of royal family. While this may prevent third party infringement of the right to privacy for the members of royal family, question arises about legal protection against public expression through comments on the specific photograph shared by the social media handles. Here two main issues may be identified: what was shown by the image creator/distributor and what expression /actions are being generated by various stakeholders about the data owner (in this case, the Princess of Wales). Courts in England have highlighted the need for protecting privacy of medical records which may be ‘presumed’ and shared for ‘public interest’ on the basis of photographs : Naomi Campbell’s case is the best example in this regard.  In Kate’s case, the issue may be connected to a certain extent because she and her children are not ‘photographed’ like Naomi. Rather, she had consensually been photographed and had apparently taken right to edit the photograph. Here emphasis is shifted to expressed comments /speech that may affect her reputation, her health records and obviously the privacy of her children. But can an individual or a family (even if it is a Royal Family) silence the speech which expresses speculations and  may build up theories of non-reliance of information shared by individuals who are followed and watched by many?  judicial precedents to a large extent have removed that protection from public figures unless such speech is passing through clear and present danger test.

The risk-factor for all: But in this case apprehend harm is more intense. The photo scrutinizers have not only checked the blurred parts, additions and deletions, they have revealed information about possible stay of the family including the children in specific locations, vulnerable mental health factors and obviously the ‘body search’ of the mother and children. This throws a challenge for all women across the globe who would wish to share their selfies, images of their children and locations. Any one now can scrutinise the dress, sitting positions and the facial images to understand the body size (which may fall within the category of sensitive personal data), specific identifiable marks in the face and geo locations. This may make it easy for predators for image cloning for criminal purposes, virtual striptease and online sexual assault of women and children by using Artificial intelligence supported by human imagination.

Is there any suggestion for protection? Yes off course! While the application of copyright laws is being prescribed worldwide to prevent unwanted usage of the images and get relief, Data protection laws and penal codes are offering solutions for preventing the wrong doer from causing more harm and punishing for wrong doer. But the originators/creators may still need to take the responsibility for controlling who may access the images and when they may access such images. We may not control the public interest into the lives of celebrities. But definitely a growing awareness about privacy and respect to privacy may go a long way to let the princes and princesses, actors, players, influencers who have become highly ‘consumable’ in the era of internet live safely forever.

Please don’t violate the copyright of this writeup. Please cite as Halder Debarati (2024).The Princess and her photos: a modern day fairy tale of internet kingdom. Published in https://internetlegalstudies.com/2024/03/22/the-princess-and-her-photos-a-modern-day-fairy-tale-of-internet-kingdom-by-dr-debarati-halder/ on 22-03-2024

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Looking for 5 star restaurants or amenities or service providers? Here is the reality by Dr.Debarati Halder

Image courtesy: author

Recently there was a news report of a woman losing a little fortune for a pencil marketing scam in India. In the contemporary world, digital marketing has become a lucrative job for all. This promises a good income from the home comfort zone and just needs two tools: internet connection and a digital technology enabled device (it can be either a smart phone or a laptop or desktop computer). But this is a myth bursting report for everyone who may read this article. I have been contacted by a recruiter agency recently and I got to see a practical example as how such agencies dupe people, especially women.

  1. How do these agencies get the phone numbers of the target victims?

Apparently they have a super research team who may go for data mining from every possible source: this can be data base of the shops where we may have recently visited and shared the phone numbers, our phone data recharging agencies where our phone numbers are supposedly saved for processing the data, third party service providers who may be working with our phone numbers, Aadhar data etc., for our professional workspaces etc. The one who contacted me (un)smartly shared that they collect ‘verified numbers’ by partnering with telecom companies for the purpose of market survey for their clients. Now the question is: who are these telecom companies? Apparently they are the digital communication service providers like Airtel, Jio, Vodafone etc. But not really: there are many telecom agencies who are middlemen. They are the agents of the main data fiduciary. They are data collectors, recharge service providers and they are all bound in the same legal chain, namely Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008).

  • Modus operandi: These ‘agency’ people filter the profile of data profiles on the basis of certain criteria. This may include age, gender and geo-location. They may contact the target through SMS or through WhatsApp. In the case of later, they may start the conversation by stating about the daily estimated income and after that they may share the trial task. It is but obvious that they do not stick to a static number. Hence if one completes the trial task and shares the bank details, the scammer may ‘vanish’ with account details and some essential confidential information that may enable them to access the account without much hard work.
  • Now comes the question as what type of task would be given and what is the ‘job’. This surprised me because I am a foodie and I really trust the ‘stars’. But its time to come out of the myth. No restaurant may have a neat 5 star from customers and diners. It’s the manipulative work of digital marketing companies that may outsource the job to people like me and you and in between some scammers may join to mint money from both the parties. I was asked to rate restaurants from Google map and the ‘task’ restaurant was somewhere 260 kilometers away from where I stay. I have never visited the restaurant and the place where it is situated. I have never seen their menu card nor I have tasted their food (nope, not even by Zomato  or Swiggy because they wont deliver any food item so far).

Now probably you may know how some restaurants, shops, hotels or even health care service providers may get 5 stars and stay at the top of search list!

But that’s not all. These agencies may necessarily provide links to upload positive comments and stars. A click on them may invite many more digital trouble.

  • Would they be worried if you tell them you have lifted the ‘innocent veil’ and found out who they are? Answer is ‘no’. That’s because they would take seconds to change their phone numbers and delete all texts shared with the victims to disable the latter to take any evidence to the police.

Why are they targeting women? A possible answer is women, especially undergraduate students and home makers may need to make money from the comfort of home. It’s a moonlighting while the home makers are involved in full time household chores.  And yes, most the targets may not be able to suspect the scammers because they may use women’s photographs in their WhatsApp profiles. As such, we may never know who accesses our WhatsApp or Instagram profile pictures and how they may be misused.

The laws that may help: First of all, understand why they are called scammers and what sort of crime they are doing. Digital personal data protection Act , 2023 has mandated that all data collectors must mandatorily explain the reason behind colleting the personal data (including the phone numbers) of data principals. All data fiduciaries are also mandated to explain why and how the collected data will be processed. Have you ever heard from your shopping mall or any other service provider stating you clearly why they are collecting your number? It’s not n for future connection. But its for sharing our phone numbers (whether consciously or unconsciously) with scammers who may continue to feed other business establishments   by providing unauthorized information. S.43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) makes the body corporate liable to pay damages to data owners for negligence to protect the integrity of the data. But this is the live example as how all stakeholders in this regard dupe the actual data principle.

Often victims who may understand that they are trapped, may try to counter these scammers by calling them, sharing photos and numbers of the scammers on the social media portals, or even try to reach out to them searching for the physical office addresses. Each of these may invite different kinds of trouble. The best way to address this is to be aware of the patterns of  fraudulent activities done by such scammers, block and report the phone  numbers to the intermediary and report the matter to the portal of https://cybervolunteer.mha.gov.in/webform/Volunteer_AuthoLogin.aspx  . Remember, we women are the chosen target for cyber crooks because they feel women are less empowered. It is our right to be safe and duty to prove them wrong!

Stay safe.

Please don’t infringe the copyright of this write-up. Please cite this as Halder.D(2023). Looking for 5 star restaurants or amenities or service providers? Here is the reality. Published on 11-11-2023 @https://wordpress.com/post/internetlegalstudies.com/1472

Editor's column, Uncategorized

THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT, 2023: can women expect any meaningful protection for Data privacy now? by Dr.Debarati Halder
Women for women

On 11th August, 2023 the much awaited The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, (DPDA) 2023 came into existence finally. Drafted majorly in the shadow of the EU general Dara Protection Regulations, DPDA offers certain rights to the data principals and certain duties to the data fiduciaries. But first, let me break a myth: DPDA is not an exclusive statute for providing privacy to our Data. The words ‘protection’ and ‘privacy’ may not be synonymous always.

 If we look into the preamble of DPDA we would see that the preamble offers four reasons for enacting this law:

  1. To provide for the processing of digital personal data in a legalised manner
  2. To recognise the right of individuals to protect their personal data and
  3. To recognise the  need to process such personal data
  4. To recognise the  lawful purposes for processing the data

Every individual is a data principal according to S.2(J) of the DPDA. Irrespective of gender and age a data principal is a person to whom the concerned data is related. However, this provision clarifies the status of children and disabled by stating that for the former the parents or the lawful guardians will become the data principal and the for later, the lawful guardian will be the data principal. As we know from the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008), data means nothing but information that may represent many profiles of individuals: these may include financial status, health status, educational status, maturity status, marital status, and what not. Data itself may be extremely costly especially when it is processed and formally associated with specific organizations or institutions. According to S.2(x) “processing” in relation to personal data, means a wholly or partly automated operation or set of operations performed on digital personal data, and includes operations such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation, retrieval, use, alignment or combination, indexing, sharing, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, restriction, erasure or destruction

Interestingly,  DPDA therefore advocates not only for the protection of the integrity of the data while it is being processed, it also bats for right to be forgotten.

For years I have been observing that women are targeted on the cyberspace for many illegal acts. I have witnessed the amendment of Indian Penal Code whereby a dedicated series of S.354 was introduced for penalizing several patterns of criminalities on cyber space. These included cyber stalking, voyeurism, disrobing women in the physical space and photographing the assault, sexual harassment and using sexually explicit language, gestures etc. Several other laws such as The sexual harassment at workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act, Indecent representation of women (prohibition) Act etc, were introduced, amended to provide further protection to women and support Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008). None could actually completely prevent online crimes against women. On the contrary, perpetrators have found new ways to commit cyber-crimes against women. At present we get to see women are targeted more by fraudsters who are tricking them for financial loss.

DPDA creates a layer of protection against the data processing stakeholders. A processed data may contribute for creating identity of the data principal, educational degrees, health records, financial records etc.  Most of these are vulnerable sensitive personal data. DPDA therefore has enhanced the responsibility of the data fiduciaries to protect the consensual data that is shared with them.

But now let us see how DPDA may not protect the interest of women:

  1. Who manages the Artificial intelligence that will be applied for processing of the data under S.2(X) of the DPDA?

The Act indicates that the Data fiduciaries and the data processors may be responsible for controlling the AI for processing the data. But where is the data pool for the AI which will be working with the data ? we must not forget that most data fiduciaries may use foreign based AI for  processing data. In that case is there any specific rule to control the foreign entity who may be controlling the AI? The answer may be found in S.3(b) of the DPDA which shares about the scope of the Act. It says as follows:

        Subject to the provisions of this Act, it shall (b)        ………..also apply to processing of digital personal data outside the territory of India, if such processing is in connection with any activity related to offering of goods or services to Data Principals within the territory of India ;

The answer may also be found in S.11 which speaks about rights of the data principal. But again, this needs a clear explanation.

It is not very clear if the AI system (that will be applied for data processing) falls within the meaning of “services to data principles within the territory of India”. If this falls within this category, then we need to see whether the contractual obligations between the data fiduciary and the AI creator company/entity can be made transparent to the data principal.

2.How would the non-digitized data be digitized without manipulating the original data?

Let us go back to S.3 of the DPDA again. While explaining the scope of the DPDA, S.3 (a) mentions that this Act shall apply to the processing of digital personal data within the territory of India where the personal data is collected…….in non-digital form and digitised subsequently. In such case and also in the case of processing digital data, DPDA does not mention what security procedure may be applied to restrict the leaking of sensitive personal data of data principals, especially women. Such question may be answered through the DPDA Rules that we are looking forward for. But honestly, there may be many occasions where data would be exposed unauthorisedly by the data protectors themselves. We need to see how far the statute would be implemented to heal the harm and compensate the data principal directly especially when the data principal is a senior citizen or a minor or educationally challenged or a disabled woman.

3.Now comes the question of grievance redressing mechanism system that must be set up by data fiduciary as has been mentioned in S.8(10) of the DPDA.

The Act remains silent about the infrastructure of the said mechanism. If we look into Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) we get to see the court system where the qualification of the forum members (for example, Administrator for civil offences etc) are clearly mentioned. But neither the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) mention anything about the qualification of the grievance redressal officers. IT(intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics) Code, 2021 discusses in detail about engaging grievance redressal mechanism by the intermediaries in Rule 3(focusing on due diligence by intermediaries ) and Rule 10 (furnishing and processing of grievance), and Chapters 2, 3 and 4(which discuss about level 1, 2 and 3 of self regulating mechanism and oversight related mechanism. We have to see if DPDA applies parts of   IT(intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics) Code, 2021 for mandating the data fiduciaries to set up grievance redressal mechanisms. In my opinion, data fiduciaries must consider engaging women officers to look after the grievances from women data principals. This may make the female data principals (especially those coming from orthodox societies and those who may be educationally and/or socio-economically challenged to access the male dominated grievance redressal mechanisms) feel comfortable to share their grievances. This may also encourage better reporting of criminal activities on cyber space.

  • DPDA under S.3© very clearly withdraws its scope from the data principals in the following situations:

(i)    personal data processed by an individual for any personal or domestic purpose; and

(ii)   personal data that is made or caused to be made publicly available

by—(A)   the Data Principal to whom such personal data relates; or (B) any other person who is under an obligation under any law for the time being in force in India to make such personal data publicly available.

The explanation to S.3 of the DPDA explicitly shows that if a data principal voluntarily shares her personal data publicly, DPDA provisions (regarding the responsibilities of data fiduciaries) will not be applicable here. In my capacity as cybercrime victim counsellor, I have seen the unfortunate rise of cybercrime cases and more unfortunate cases of victim blaming in cases such as those mentioned in the exception of S.3© of the DPDA: bloggers, digital creators and social media influencers intentionally share their personal data for profit gain. In case of infringement of their data integrity or data breach, they will now become ‘guardian-less victims’ who should brace themselves to face challenges in the system of criminal justice. But here lies the legal twist: such women may claim the protection of DPDA if their sensitive personal data integrity is violated due to the negligence of the data fiduciary i.e., the intermediary/website/web domain etc, who are providing them platforms to publish their blogs, write-ups, opinions, videos, business related information etc.  As such, women bloggers, digital creators and social media influencers must go ahead with their data sharing and data processing contracts with the primary data fiduciary (the web domains, websites etc) with extreme care. Such women (and men too) must now consult lawyers to prepare an agreement for entering into contract with such intermediaries etc, who have always tried to dominate the contractual relationships with their custom made agreements which may enable them to escape the liabilities by using immunity veils.

4. Last, but not the least is the question of “lawful purposes” that makes the data fiduciaries liable to share the personal sensitive data with the government stakeholders.

The issue of surveillance is mention-able here. While there may be surveillance in the name of safety of the nation, peace and security of the community, friendly relationship with neighbouring countries and even for protecting the rights of the fellow citizens as has been stated under Article 19(2) of the Constitution, misuse of power by government officials including police officers to breach the integrity of personal data of women may be a serious blow on the right to protection and privacy of digital data.

DPDA, 2023 offers many positive aspects for data protection. But this is a beginning of a new understanding of data protection regime in India. We need to have lot more research on the practical applicability of the Law to provide safety to women. Let this ‘new beginning’ bring more positive attitude and awareness for a holistic safety on cyber space.

Please note: please do not violate the copy right of this writeup. If you want to use it for your article, assignment, project etc, please cite it has Halder Debarati (August, 2023) THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT, 2023: can women expect any meaningful protection for data privacy now? Published in https://wordpress.com/post/internetlegalstudies.com/1433 on 24-08-2023

Uncategorized

What is meant by “Website”? by Dr.Debarati Halder

We are in 2022 and the pandemic has not left us yet. News channels are tirelessly sharing updates on surging cases, further closure orders for schools, virtual hearing of the courts etc. Where are we sharing the information? From where are we getting some information? It is “websites”. There are millions of websites hosted and also managed by different stakeholders who share different information on WorldWideWeb. Strangely, we do not find the definition of the term website in majority of legal documents but when we see from the perspective of cybercrimes, we cannot avoid the role of websites as websites provide a platform for sharing contents which may be offensive.

The term website is connected with the concept of world wide web which was invented in 1989  by British scientist Tim Barnes Lee who worked on Interlinking of webpage and websites as a scientist with European organization for  nuclear research (CERN). Lee’s work led to connect creation of worldwide web to attributing ip address, domain names, .ccreation of hypertext markup language , uniform resource locator (URL) etc. The major reason behind creating the web was to facilitate the demands of information sharing between the government stakeholders including the military, scientists in the universities and other institutes all over the world for the purpose of information sharing, gathering and strengthening national security including cyber security infrastructure and military intelligentsia. However, very soon in the millennium tech companies started appearing to create, host, maintain etc., of websites which were interactive, passive or hybrid types of websites and which could be used for either e-commerce purposes, or for interaction, peer to peer networking and information sharing or for all. At this juncture it became necessary to explain the term “website”. Even though, we do not get to see any uniform definition of the term in specific legal documents, the term has been attempted to be defined by different stakeholders. It may be broadly explained as collection of hyperlinked pages over the web and related contents which may be identified by common domain name and which may get published on world wide web by some web server.

Now we are dependent completely on different kinds of websites and we manage our homes and offices through these websites. Presently we get to see many legal persons, i.e., companies which may create their own websites which may be used mainly for information sharing, e-commerce purposes and interacting with people. There are different technology companies like Meta (earlier known as Facebook), specifically created for sponsoring, creating, maintaining websites and webpages who also collect data of the users/subscribers/.  We have heard a lot about liability of the websites. But websites in general are inanimate. They become legal persons only when they are operated by people who may create websites, connect to web pages, get a domain name for the websites, publish contents and facilitate peer to peer networking and/or share information as a passive website. Liability of the websites therefore depend on their activities that are decided by the creators/administrators/distributors/users of the websites.

Intermediary and Website are not the same: Even though there are several laws and policy guidelines have been made worldwide to consider liabilities of the websites including The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, we have not yet seen the proper definition of website.  Even though S.2w of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) defines the term intermediary as “any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits that record or provides any service with respect to that record and includes telecom service providers, web-housing service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online auction sites, online market places and cyber cafes”, the same should not be confused with the term ‘website’. An intermediary however can create, maintain a website.

Please note: Please  do not violate the copyright of this writeup. Please site it as Halder Debarati (2022) What is a website? Published in https://internetlegalstudies.com/2022/01/03/what-is-meant-by-website-by-dr-debarati-halder/ on 03-01-2022

News update on cybercrimes against women and laws, Uncategorized

Gender and Internet : Web magazine for Cyber law for women News update for October 25- November, 30. 2021
#orangetheworld #Endviolenceagainstwomen #stopcybercrimesagainstwomen Image courtesy : UN Women

Police arrests man for sending lewd texts, threat messages and repeated calls to a female actor in India and charges him under different provisions of Information Technology Act. The accused is produced before the magistrate and sent for judicial custody for 10 days.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/news/lewd-texts-threats-to-actress-lead-to-mans-arrest-from-jadavpur/cid/1841214

Woman falls into the trap of e-commerce fraudsters, shares bank account details and looses a little fortune. After making a police report immediately, the fraudsters’ details along with the bank details were tracked and frozen by the police. The woman received the lost amount to her bank account within record time.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/timely-act-by-police-helps-woman-recover-money-lost-to-online-fraud/article37759802.ece

Report suggests female gamers in Australia are preferring more online games than socializing and going for dating on physical space.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGllClRsWpWhThqkGNFkJRSDvjv

Man appears semi naked in virtual courtroom hearing for Karnataka High-count, Karnataka, India in spite of senior woman lawyer raising objection to the same. Senior lawyer plans to lodge sexual harassment compliant against the man.
https://www.barandbench.com/news/indira-jaising-to-lodge-sexual-harassment-complaint-after-man-appears-semi-nude-during-virtual-hearing-before-karnataka-high-court?fbclid=IwAR1mxwyvJImBCu1D59Ui2GW5GxYeWmrHliZknejZHJKXlUqj84Au6Y3WK-k

Man shares rape threats to the infant daughter of the celebrity Indian cricketer and gets arrested by the police in India. he is charged with offences including child online sexual abuse, criminal intimidation, defamation etc.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/12/sport/virat-kohli-abuse-arrest-intl-hnk/index.html

Leicester police starts investigation for illegal live streaming of paid for TV programs and arrested woman over suspicion of livestreaming such programs along with another accused man. Charges framed under copyright laws and police warns for consumers who are consuming sch contents over illegal livestreaming platforms.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-59476662

State attorneys general launches investigation into Meta (earlier known as Facebook) on the failure of liability of its platform Instagram to control harmful impact on children.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/tech/meta-instagram-kids-attorneys-general-investigation/index.html

Police warns users of social media to secure their profiles as women in Victoria, Australia faces sextortion by perpetrators who culled out sensitive personal data by unauthorisedly accessing the profiles of the friends of the victims.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7521310/victorian-women-warned-of-sextortion-scams/

Norwich doctor uses pinhole camera for voyeurism purposes targeting women in his home, female doctors, nurses and mother of a child patient. He is charged with offences of voyeurism and has now been pleaded guilty for several offences in the nature of cyber crimes targeting women including voyeurism, unauthoirsedly accessing icloud system and douwnloading naked photos etc. He is punished with jailterm for two years and eight months by St Albuns Crown Court, England.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-59353540

Uncategorized

Gender and Internet : Web magazine for Cyber law for women News update for August 2-August 25, 2021
Image courtesy : Debarati Halder

Former editor of New York observer newspaper Kenneth Kurson faces charges by New York Prosecutors on the issue of installing spyware on the computer of his ‘then-wife’ for cyber stalking her.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/18/politics/kenneth-kurson-trump-pardon-kushner/index.html

Perpetrators gets arrested for morphing pictures to earn money
https://www.the420.in/morphed-image-of-tiktok-star-shared-on-social-media-to-earn-money-5-arrested/

Penang police in Malayasia receives reports of job scam, majority of the victims are women.
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/penang-cops-receive-149-reports-on-job-scams-this-year-EA8211336

Pasay City office of the prosecutor in Philippines suggests for bringing charges against former US diplomat for violating laws for protecting children from sexual offences under Republic Act (RA) 7610 or the “Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination” and RA 9775 or the “Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.
The victim was made to involve in sexual activities and she was filmed.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/08/16/news/national/former-us-diplomat-faces-sex-abuse-raps/1811092

Cyber cons are targeting police officers, judicial officers and educated people including women for financial frauds
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/new-age-cyber-cons-target-high-profile/articleshow/85193236.cms

Small time actress Meera Mithun gets arrested for her communal hate speech over cyber platforms in south India
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=meera+mithun

Uncategorized

Gender and Internet : Web magazine for Cyber law for women News update for January 7th-January 17th, 2021

Women clothes sellers on e-commerce platforms are not spared! Predators target them with nasty messages asking about private questions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55661022

Senior Indian woman journalist reports of phishing attack after realizing that offer to join Harvard university was a phishing mechanism.
https://www.ndtv.com/blog/how-i-fell-for-a-phishing-attack-my-story-by-nidhi-razdan-2353395

Man takes revenge for cyber bullying his girl friend by stealing 500 laptops from medical colleges in India
https://www-indiatimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.indiatimes.com/amp/news/india/man-steals-at-least-500-medical-college-laptops-to-avenge-cyberbullying-of-girlfriend-531944.html?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D&fbclid=IwAR2kF1YDcJMlXvLo9juNiWDjvPmgPRvW_WN2vtJeP4ifkCRR2Lh58w7TPZM#aoh=16106782822311&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatimes.com%2Fnews%2Findia%2Fman-steals-at-least-500-medical-college-laptops-to-avenge-cyberbullying-of-girlfriend-531944.html

YouTubers in India get arrested after their channel showcase woman talking about sex, alcohol
https://www-news18-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.news18.com/amp/news/buzz/three-youtubers-arrested-in-chennai-after-video-of-woman-talking-about-sex-alcohol-goes-viral-3282737.html?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D&fbclid=IwAR1rJlAkySrIGEOwxlk5MWvP36e14n5l2sT-p02t0OdrBE9JA-c8kL91kas#ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news18.com%2Fnews%2Fbuzz%2Fthree-youtubers-arrested-in-chennai-after-video-of-woman-talking-about-sex-alcohol-goes-viral-3282737.html

Uncategorized

Plight of "Punita" : A common tale of \’powerless\’ women victims of trolling

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

Image courtesy : Internet 

In 2012 “Nirbhaya” a young female paramedic was brutally gang raped in a cold December night in Delhi, India. Within a few days the police nabbed the offenders and arrested them. All 6 of them were from northern parts of India who came down to Delhi for making their living. All of them were working as transport workers including driver, conductor, cleaner etc. Within a few days of their arrest, the victim died because of the impact of the assault and internal injuries. The charges against the accused were enhanced from rape to include murder under the Indian Penal Code. Among the 6 accused persons, the prime accused committed suicide. Even though the case was taken over by fast track trial court, it took around 10 months for the trial court to convict the accused and award death penalty to the surviving 5 accused. The death penalty was upheld by the Supreme Court of India in 2017. In between one of the accused pleaded to be considered as minor and was declared as minor and hence was dealt under the Juvenile justice administration system. However neither the Supreme Court, nor the high court prevented the accused persons from exercising their rights to appeal against the capital sentence. The Supreme Court considered this case as rarest of rare cases. Except the minor, other convicted accused did not however succeed in their respective pleas to the Supreme Court to reverse the sentence to life imprisonment and the President for mercy petition.[1]  All four of the adult convicts were hanged in the wee hours of 20th March, 2020. Immediately after this the Covid 19 lockdown was clamped strictly almost all over the world preventing several litigants, victims to approach the courts as courts also suffered due to pandemic.

None of the convicted persons in NIrbhaya case came from socio-economically forward class. Except one, others did not complete their basic education as well.[2]Some researches including the controversial India’s Daughter documentary[3]claimed that lack of education could have been the main reason to defy the laws for violating women in this regard. While almost all such researches and findings were concerned about the perpetrators, not many looked into the fate of the wives of such sex offenders who may not have received primary education and may not have been allowed to access justice for themselves because of being women and living in patriarchal societies. Punita, wife of Akshay Thakur, who was one of the convicts, tried her level best to convince the courts and the society at large in her own way  that if her husband was hanged, she and her minor son would have to die. On the final day of hearing she was seen shouting, crying, beating herself and fainting before the Supreme Court building. Her actions attracted media and she was probably encouraged to continue to do what she was doing because that would add more TRP to the stories that were being made on Nirbhaya sentencing. Soon she made headlines in almost all domestic and foreign news channels and she was center of debates for and against death penalty. Simultaneously she was targeted by internet trolls vigorously.[4]

In the recently held 9thinternational victimology conference organized by Jindal institute of Behavioral Sciences[5]I had addressed the issue of cyber victimization of Punita through my paper titled “Critical analysis of the case of wife of Nirbhaya rape convict: therapeutic jurisprudence & cyber victimological perspectives”.  While the media could successfully (and probably rightly) generate public sympathy for the rape victim and her family, they generated extreme hatred to Punita because she was apparently ‘supporting her husband’. The internet platforms added fuel to the fire in this hate campaign. If one sees the news reports on Punita Devi on the social media handles of the news media channels, one would get to see that the comments posted about her and opinion generated on her created extremely negative profile of hers which would go a long way to prevent her from getting any job in any private or public sector. It was a visual victimization of Punita on cyber space which still exists on cyber space and will be existing forever. In my earlier research on visual victimization of women on cyber space, I had observed that the victims of such visual victimizations may now know about their online victimization because they may never get access to the internet and digital communication media as their urban counterparts may get, which may eventually help the later to reach the criminal justice machinery to remove these contents.[6]

 Women such as Punita are often seen as ‘co-accused’ by the public at large. Coming from socio-economically backward communities and being educationally challenged, most wives of sex offenders in several Asian countries (where patriarchy rules), may not be allowed to access justice for themselves. Apparently she approached the family court in her native district for divorce because the Hindu Marriage Act under S.13B(2ii) allows women to get ‘quick’ divorce under special grounds which includes conviction of husband for rape, sodomy, bestiality etc.[7]But she was too late in approaching the court. She did not want to live as a widow of a hanged rapist. She preferred to be a divorcee. Women in such situations are blamed by the families and public at large for failing to satisfy their husbands sexually and materialistically which may have encouraged the later to go ahead for raping and sexually assaulting other women. These women cannot go ahead for divorce while the trial is on because this would not only attract social taboo, it will also push such women to extreme poverty: they have to leave the matrimonial homes, they may not be accepted in their parental homes and they may not get any financial support from anyone.

How can Therapeutic Jurisprudence help?  Justice Krishna Iyer  a legendary judge who introduced new paradigm to reformative justice in India mentioned about applying Therapeutic jurisprudence in the prisons for reforming the prisoners in 1970’s.[8]But after him we did  not get to see the use of the term by the judges while dealing with reformative criminal jurisprudence in India. In numbers of my researches however I have shown that the concept of Therapeutic Jurisprudence has submissively influenced the Indian judges.[9]The spirit of Therapeutic Jurisprudence may help wives of sex offenders especially in countries like India. In my earlier research  titled “Free Legal Aid for women and Therapeutic Jurisprudence: A critical examination of the Indian model”,[10] which was published In the edited book volume titled Methodology And Practice Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence Research edited by Stobbs Nigel, Bartel Lorana & Vols.M , I had observed that women especially from socioeconomically backward communities may not be permitted to access justice even if the legal counseling  is freely available through free legal aid clinics. This situation may be improved by vigorous campaigning by legal aid volunteers and law students. The law students, practitioners and judges must be sensitized about Therapeutic jurisprudence and law’s therapeutic effects which may bring tremendous change in women empowerment. Wives of sex offenders go through tremendous traumatization primarily because they feel cheated in their marriages and then feel threatened when it comes to social security for them. As such, mental wellbeing of these women are least taken care of when the court decides to charge the husbands, i.e. the accused in sex offences. In my presentation in the international victimology conference mentioned above, I have proposed that courts must consider to parallelly counsel such wives through free legal aid cells so that they may be made aware about their rights for divorce, matrimonial alimony, child custody and maintenance for child.

Further, I have also proposed that courts must suomotu consider to pass restraining order for the media houses regarding airing the images of grieving wives, who may or may not be accompanied by their children. These women do not make any ‘drama’ to stall the execution of sentences for supporting their husbands. They express their anger, frustration and fear for their own future which is dependent on the longevity of their husbands. Unfortunately their expression of fear, frustration etc are hugely consumed sadistically by the society at large and due to the non-ending presence of the clippings on the internet, such women may be profiled in a negative way. I have proposed that the scope of Right to be forgotten must be expanded in such cases which the courts must take up extending the power of judicial intervention for ensuring the privacy rights of women. Interestingly many courts across the globe are shifting burden to the website companies for not removing objectionable contents especially when it comes privacy of women and children. India has laws for website liabilities in this regard under S.79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008). This provision read with Information Technology (reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information ) Rules 2011 mandates that web companies shall be held liable if they do not take down objectionable contents within due time. This brings two major points to be considered: who reports it? Whether this can be considered as ‘protected speech and expression’. Indian judicial understanding regarding freedom of speech on internet is expanding and courts have started using judicial discretion to not to consider each and every speech as speech falling outside the purview of Article 19(1)(A) of the Indian constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right. It is obvious that women such as Punita would not know about such legal jurisprudence. The courts therefore must consider adding this issue in the bag of ‘reformative and rehabilitative considerations’ when awarding the sentences (including life sentence or capital sentences).  This may go a long way to prevent secondary victimization of the wives of sex offenders who are ‘innocent victims’ of the entire situation.

It is therefore hoped that if the issue of online as well as real life victimization of the wives of the convicted sex offenders are seen from the Therapeutic Jurisprudential aspects, the rights of women to access justice, rehabilitation and privacy may be secured.

 

Prof(Dr) Debarati Halder, LL.B, LL.M, Ph.D(Law)(NLSIU) is a Professor at Unitedoworld School of Law, Karnavati University, Gujarat, India. She is the founder of Centre for Cyber Victim Counselling (www.cybervictims.org) and the India chapter head of International Society of Therapeutic Jurisprudence. She is the pioneer in introducing Therapeutic Jurisprudence as a part of credit course in legal education in India. She can be reached @debaratihalder@gmail.com

 

[1]See for more in PTI(2020) Nirbhaya case convicts to be hanged at 5.30 a.m. as Supreme Court dismisses plea against rejection of mercy petition. Published on March 20.2020 in The Hindu. URL: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/nirbhaya-case-convicts-to-be-hanged-as-supreme-court-dismisses-plea-against-rejection-of-mercy-petition/article31114747.ece Accessed on 21.03.2020

[2] For more, see in Profiles: Who were the Delhi gang rape convicts?. Published in https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-23434888#:~:text=Courts%20convicted%20six%20people%20for,student%20in%20a%20moving%20bus. On March 20. 2020, accessed on 21.03.2020

[3] For more, see in Banned film India\’s Daughter shown in rapists\’ slum

. Published in https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31865477 . On March13. 2015, accessed on 21.03.2020

[4] For example see the comments @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwPrx1l9Hg Accessed on 29.10.2020

[5] The conference proceedings and my presentation are available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9__aYyD9cA

[6] Halder D., & Jaishankar, K. (2014). Online Victimization of Andaman Jarawa Tribal Women: An Analysis of the Human SafariYouTube Videos (2012) and its Effects. British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 673-688. (Impact factor 1.556). DOI: 10.1093/bjc/azu026.

[7] Section 13(2)(ii) in The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 states

 “A wife may also present a petition for the dissolution of her marriage by a decree of divorce on the ground………. that the husband has, since the solemnisation of the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality”

[8] See for more in Md Ghiasuddin vs State of AP . reported in (1977) 3 SCC 287. Available at: http://www.indiankanoon.org/

doc/1850315/,

[9] See Halder, Debarati, Why Law Fails to Be Therapeutic in Spite of Therapeutic Judicial Efforts: A Critical Analysis of Indian Legal Education From the Therapeutic Jurisprudence Perspective (October 28, 2018). Unitedworld Law Journal, Vol 2, Issue: I, ISSN: 2457-0427, (2018) pp 173-182, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3274175

[10] Halder, D. (2019), Free Legal Aid for women and Therapeutic Jurisprudence: A critical examination of the Indian model. In Stobbs Nigel, Bartel Lorana & Vols.M (eds.), Methodology And Practice Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence Research. USA: Carolina Academy Press.

Please do not violate the copyright of this blog. Please cite it as “Halder Debarati. (2020), Plight of \”Punita\” : A common tale of \’powerless\’ women victims of trolling\” November, 8, 2020, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com

 

 

[1]See for more in PTI(2020) Nirbhaya case convicts to be hanged at 5.30 a.m. as Supreme Court dismisses plea against rejection of mercy petition. Published on March 20.2020 in The Hindu. URL: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/nirbhaya-case-convicts-to-be-hanged-as-supreme-court-dismisses-plea-against-rejection-of-mercy-petition/article31114747.ece Accessed on 21.03.2020

[2] For more, see in Profiles: Who were the Delhi gang rape convicts?. Published in https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-23434888#:~:text=Courts%20convicted%20six%20people%20for,student%20in%20a%20moving%20bus. On March 20. 2020, accessed on 21.03.2020

[3] For more, see in Banned film India\’s Daughter shown in rapists\’ slum

. Published in https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31865477 . On March13. 2015, accessed on 21.03.2020

[4] For example see the comments @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwPrx1l9Hg Accessed on 29.10.2020

[5] The conference proceedings and my presentation are available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9__aYyD9cA

[6] Halder D., & Jaishankar, K. (2014). Online Victimization of Andaman Jarawa Tribal Women: An Analysis of the Human SafariYouTube Videos (2012) and its Effects. British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 673-688. (Impact factor 1.556). DOI: 10.1093/bjc/azu026.

[7] Section 13(2)(ii) in The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 states

 “A wife may also present a petition for the dissolution of her marriage by a decree of divorce on the ground………. that the husband has, since the solemnisation of the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality”

[8] See for more in Md Ghiasuddin vs State of AP . reported in (1977) 3 SCC 287. Available at: http://www.indiankanoon.org/

doc/1850315/,

[9] See Halder, Debarati, Why Law Fails to Be Therapeutic in Spite of Therapeutic Judicial Efforts: A Critical Analysis of Indian Legal Education From the Therapeutic Jurisprudence Perspective (October 28, 2018). Unitedworld Law Journal, Vol 2, Issue: I, ISSN: 2457-0427, (2018) pp 173-182, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3274175

[10] Halder, D. (2019), Free Legal Aid for women and Therapeutic Jurisprudence: A critical examination of the Indian model. In Stobbs Nigel, Bartel Lorana & Vols.M (eds.), Methodology And Practice Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence Research. USA: Carolina Academy Press.

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA