Recently I was writing an article on Sexting. My subjects were children, but I felt very strange when I finished the whole article .I remembered we , the older generation electronic stuff users ( when compared to these Digi-kids), also faced quite the similar situations when we were young adults.Ten or fifteen years back, we didn’t have such huge popularity and usage of mobile phones in India, but we did have regular prank calls in our land lines to remind us that we are WOMEN.And how did it happen? I remember, exactly fifteen years back from today , there was a regular caller to our number who loved to hear our voice. He never got discouraged by daddy’s warning,complete silence from our side , or even grandma’s old voice. Some how he knew this number belongs to a family who have girls. At the beginning, the caller used to make frantic experiments with his romantic dialogues to befriend me and my sister. Slowly he changed his ways. He started telling how beautiful we are ( ahem… we were pretty healthy and foody , but the caller kept on insisting that we are “beautiful”… enough to make self conscious teens fall for unknown “boy friends” isn’t it?) , how sweet we look when we wear the particular shade of pink etc etc…Now, my family being headed by a police chief dad, we were told these are nothing but “disturbing calls” and we should not answer them.Well, we learnt this practical way of what is “eve teasing” and what is “stalking”. But things didnt go so smoothly either. One night, after his usual dialogue, the caller suddenly started describing his physic. This was it… As usual, we hung up the receiver for the whole night , but some thing told me and my sister , lets hear today what he is upto…. He did describe himself as a very charming handsome muscleman who can “satisfy any woman”( “satisfy?” we were pretty surprised… innocence you call?).Well, we heard , didn’t say anything. But next night he came up with an unusual proposal… how about experiencing some “real hot stuff” over phone? As usual, we silently heard his “ideas”. Indeed the caller was a young adult himself who didn’t have any such practical sexual experiences , but hey come on, he heard a girl’s voice the very first day in this number and planned to “experiment”with his newly acquired “manhood”.He told us how he would love to take us to honeymoon to some beach resort and do “all those stuff that married men do”.Our instinct told this is not normal. We told the whole incidence to our dad and since the very next night , our “watch man” disappeared.
When we discussed these “funny episodes” with our cousin and friends, they came up with similar stories. Some experiences were very funny, some were really scary, some made the girls to plead their parents to change the phone numbers. As a grown up woman, I now understand that we too had been victims of telephonic eve teasing. Well, those “disturbances” in our times were not so alarming as it is now. We didn’t have the open access to internet to immediately publicize the phone number or the residential address to which this number is allotted.But now these “night calls” remain no more “amusing” even if it is done in the land lines. You never know how your silence after a simple “hello” can make you a victim.Well, You are asking about my suggestion ? Hang on.. because I still get such prank calls and I promptly switch off the phone if I get to see the number is “unknown”.But as I always say.. ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN”

many of the cyber victims whom I have come across in different phases of life , asks me a similar question… “is it the right stage to go to the police?” well, now how do you answer them? not only in India, but in many parts of the world, Police is not familiar with cyber offenses. hence if you are one of those unlucky victims who have a police station nearby where the “incharge” does not know much about cyber laws, leave the “patterns” of cyber crime, you would be a real “victim” of law and justice. I will be dealing with this issue in my next column.. untill then .. prepare for a safe weekend…

As promised, I have come back again with some useful tips to save women online from perpetrators in the social networking websites. When You open an account with a social networking website , you may find a column titled privacy policies . Most of the times we dont have time to go through such articles. but believe me , this can be a good eye opener. I am member of some leading social networking websites . I found many useful tips to save my self and my virtual home from all these websites which were quite common . Here are those tips:
1. Never use your regular email address for socialising in the net. Create different identities for different social networking websites.
2. Never display your real home address, telephone number or your parent’s / spouse’s phone number.
3. Be very careful while joining any commuity / groups or forums. Check whther it is having any objectionable posts/ comments or threads.
4. If you DO NOT know a person who wants to befriend you , check his / her profile thoroughly , peed into his/ her freinds’ groups/ personal message board ( if it is allowed) , albums , his communities and his posts in those communities to know him/ her better. Do not accpet him/ her as a friend if you have suspicion .
5. It is not allways the MALE PROFILE that can cause danger , but also FEMALE PROFILE which may have equal threat to your profile . What if the female is a camouflaged “dirty fellow”?
6. Be careful of what you write in the internet . you may not get any second oppertunity to deny or cancel your statement.
Allways remember , a little precaution can help you to make this “virtual network” a wonderful experience .