Tag: cyber crime against women

Uncategorized February 10, 2012

“Gang raped” in the assembly

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

By the middle of this week, we the curious watchers of legal battle between Google and 20 more websites and the Indian courts got a “nice” surprise …not from the Google, or from Facebook or even from the rest of those websites, neither from the courts and legal fraternity; but from three ministers in Karnataka state, which is known to have India’s first and most famous cyber crime police cell. When the assembly was being stormed by some very important debate, one of these ministers allegedly was looking at a clipping which involved sex, abuse of woman, violence and probably violation of internet decency codes. The news reports suggested that it was the minister for cooperation who had the mobile phone device placed between his lap and the desk and started watching the clipping. He then started “flipping pictures of women” . The other two ministers joined him out of curiosity (see http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article2869723.ece). Who were the other two ministers? One was in charge of ecology, environment and ports; the other was none other than the minister in charge of women and child welfare. The ministers were immediately indicted and later they had voluntarily resigned from their posts. Even though they argued that they were seeing the clipping of a gang-rape incidence that was sent to the mobile phone device, their argument needs to be proved. But the issue that really moved me was, probably no human being can resist himself from viewing sex-related video images…but seeing these stuff in the assembly? No way… quite a long ago Bombay High court refused to provide a blanket ban on porn materials in the internet. I had even discussed about it in my earlier blogs. The high court rightly held that law cannot stop a person’s sexual rights (including right to be aroused by viewing such materials), if these materials are gained in the legal way and seen in private.

Such materials could be gained in the legal way as per the Indian laws, if they do not violate sections 66E, 67, 67A and B of the information Technology Act, 2008 specifically which prohibit voyeurism and publishing and transmitting of obscene, sexually explicit materials to anyone including children; and off course sections 292, 293 of the Indian penal code, which prohibits sale of obscene books etc to anyone including children, 375, which discusses about rape, and 509 of the I.P.C,which is a popular provision used by the police for indicting the perpetrator for creating nasty profiles in the social networking sites. Well, these are just a few provisions which prevent sexual exploitation, rather “slavery” of women and children, and also men (leaving aside provisions for rape and 509) online. But the law does not roll up its sleeve here. There are many other provisions which could be brought in to prevent the “world wide web” to transmit the humiliation. All were glaringly violated on this very day. First, the ministers saw the sex-clippings violating the core decorum of the assembly; second, if these were the pictures of gang rape incidence that were transmitted to them by someone else, as alleged by them, they did not immediately made a note to the assembly, which they should have, especially since the minister for women and child development was also involved; third, the clipping itself being shrouded in controversy, they may have also violated the legal provisions meant for internet sex-offences as I mentioned above. The ultimate result… a real gang rape of laws meant to prevent sexual exploitation of women online.

It is hoped that very soon the incidence will be probed and the real story behind the hush-hash viewing of the clippings by the ministers will be revealed; probably they will positively testify their own argument. But the underlying fact remains the same….. Audio-visual clips of naked or semi nude women writhing in pain gained from sexual intercourse, transmitted through digital technology to millions, are the best entertaining materials even in a busy and important commitment like making ,breaking or deciding the fate of the laws in the parliament…………….. Shame……

** The author does not intend to hurt anybody’s political sentiments. This is an independent view of the author and the author has expressed her views in her own right towards exercising freedom of speech. If anybody feels hurt, the author apologises in advance.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2012), ““Gang raped” in the assembly”, 10^th February,2012, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized November 20, 2011

No more slangs: it may land you in jail…….……….really?

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

The last page of the newspaper The Hindu always offers some amusing news for me . Today was no exception. I was pleasantly “surprised” when I read the news “Pakistan bans 1,695 words on cellphone” ( see http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2642848.ece). The news report gave a strong suggestion that activists within Pakistan have condemned it. True, in any democratic country the government can not ban the freedom of expression unless it falls within the strict criteria of constitutionally frame-worked “banned words”. Further, the government can not suomotu shut the mouth of citizens unless it has been proved that some one/group of people are really hurt and such activities will bring in huge chaos in the country. But the news report further suggested that Pakistangovernment has taken this decision after a series of court orders came out “favoring reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech” . The Pakistantelecom authority (PTA) has ordered for content filtering for all the mobile phone service providers of some words including words like “Jesus Christ”. Well, if this act is done to prevent mobile harassment especially for women, I am for it ( off course not for curbing other words which do not carry offending or sexually harassing or obscene motives). But one needs to see that whether this act of the government resulted from huge complaints from women regarding this. In Indiasending offensive communications via digital media is considered as an offence under section 66A. Along with this Section 509 of the IPC is also used in some cases when modesty of women are targeted, i.e, they are targeted with words which actually sounds very nasty. Not to forget the power of sections 69 and 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2008, which gives enough power to the government for intercepting, monitoring and even blocking the free flowing of informations through digi-tech services; India can also probably take up such action as her neighbor to prevent individuals from using slangs targeting women.

Now, coming to the arguments against such government acts, I will sum up my points as below:

1. women are targeted with slang words, men are neither spared. It has become a new fashion among some people to use abusive words, including slangs while texting or even speaking with friends……forget about the heated up arguments which often carry ‘unwanted words’.

2. How far the government can check? Checking the usage of words with double meaning will become a huge task. Probably for this a new academic course would be needed to study the changing trend of words with black and white meanings. Don’t forget, we in this peninsula speak both English and vernacular language and majority have excellent ability to use “Hinglish” to express thoughts.

3. We get to see so much ***ing words/images in popular social networking sites which are hugely shared and also enjoyed by many of us… would government go ahead with banning these social networking sites too? Well, once Pakistan did ban Facebook for insulting Islam. But in India no such act was taken except the 2006 ban on an Orkut community which triggered tension for insulting the great Maratha king Chatrapati Shivaji. But note that Orkut as a site was not banned.

It is no wonder that the concept of unprotected speech and expression, seen from the aspect of Article 19(2)(v) under Indian constitution is becoming more narrowed. This provision speaks about curbing right to speech on the ground of morality and indecency. But at the same time, it lies upon the users of the free speech guarantee to use it in a proper fashion, so that the government need not step in to curb the right. Once the individual users, irrespective of their gender, decide the level of decency for usage of language themselves, the problem of objectionable words and government’s “Big Brother” attitude towards free speech guarantee may be set at rest to a certain extent…..if not fully.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2011), “No more slangs: it may land you in jail…….……….really?”20^th November,2011, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized October 27, 2011

Pesky calls…..and some simple ways to deal with it

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

I had a writer’s block. Exactly when I was searching for a solution, came an idea through a phone call. It was a pesky call for others, a ‘thought provoking’ call for me. A male voice conveyed the message that he loves me. Well, I was not taken aback. I have dealt with such cases and I know how amazing it may sound like when one young individual gets such phone calls for the first time. But when it involves women who do not want to entertain such callers, the experience is definitely not good. If it is a mobile number and the owner is very cautious about the privacy, it could be presumed that there would be no such pesky calls to disturb her. But this myth is easily broken when such tightly shielded privacy is suddenly broken. One may wonder how these phone numbers are publicized especially for pranksters like the guys who called me a couple of hours ago. Well, it is not the result of data mining, neither a part of stalking; I presume it is part of festive fun. It is chosen game for many youngsters to make calls to random numbers when some plan for a get together. When a woman’s voice is heard, these pranksters immediately start showing off the ‘Romeo’ inside them. Some of their targets get scared, some take it very seriously and threaten the callers to take it to the police if again they try such tactics; some transfer the phone to the male members of the family to deal with the matter in a ‘manly’ way and some become permanent victims because they don’t want to get anyone’s help thinking that the whole blame would be put on them. The last category of ‘targets’ are always ‘chosen’ types for pranksters as they feel these recipients are reliable targets; they will not bring in any trouble for their (annoying) fun time.

But how to deal with it? There are ways ….not one, but multiple ways to tackle them; complaining to the police with the received call records, approaching the man directly through lawyer’s help,changing number and even avoiding the number when it rings , etc. But the problem does not really end here. The woman needs to be strong enough to deal with it. I did a counter prank when these guys were ‘playing’ with my privacy and testing my patience. I gave the device to my Mr. Right and we decided to make it the biggest Diwali fun. The soft voice informed this ‘festive season lover’ that he has jumped in front of the gun; but anyway, we are willing to help him because we are THE police station. Well, we really are, as it is my job to record the patterns of approaches so that I can contribute for a better law. Did he blink? Did he go blank? Did he faint? Probably. Because there were no more phone calls and my ‘lover’ switched off his phone in between.

Hope all of you there had a wonderful Diwali.

”, 27^thOctober,2011, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized October 6, 2011

Be aware of online mischief mongers

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

Not all come to the net for networking, increasing business rapport or discussing some serious issues which may include academic discussions, burning social discussions or even chit-chats. Some even come for satisfying their sexual passion too. Yes, internet IS the place where one can hide under anonymity and satisfy him/herself in a manner that was unthinkable even a couple of years back. In my six long years of extensively browsing the net and networking, I have encountered many men species of this kind. I do not shy away from discussing one such incidence which made me to “grow up” as a woman in the internet. It happened before the Facebook era when Orkut won the hearts of millions of Indians. I was no exception. The concept of privacy was in its infanthood and any one could chat, send friend’s request and see personal albums of anyone. I was approached by some fellow net users who felt that I look “attractive”. There were some more messages which could make any woman’s cheek flush with anger, deep insult and a feeling of guilt……yes you read it correctly…feeling of guilt….for why did I not choose to be a “man” in the net. May be a profile picture of one of the great Khans, could save me. I instantly deleted my profile to get rid of the problem.… I discussed the issue with my husband who is a criminologist himself. Why some men prefer to communicate in this fashion which brings out their ugly passion for sexual chats with unknown women? Why do they choose internet as a platform to do this? The simple answer is, such men love to use the net to relax in a mischievous manner. These sorts of men randomly choose women’s profile to be friends with, to chat and satisfy their own sexual pleasure in this unique way. Well, the trend has not died down still now. It remains and will remain.

As a lawyer and a researcher, I know every one has the “rights to sexual pleasure”. But there lies THE point. One can not use such language or activities which may sound/appear offensive, obscene or sexually explicit to others. It is not uncommon situation where such men grow very angry when they do not receive proper response from the women with whom they are communicating. Resultant, they may start hurling chosen abusive language and even threaten the women to disclose the whole chat session in the web. Where does the whole stuff land then? From mischievous sexual pranks to serious cajoling of the women to ugly name calling and then finally to angry messages which convey nothing but threat to the woman in question……all in a day’s work you say ! Our Indian laws do make such communications illegal and penal. Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) makes it illegal and penal to convey such offensive messages. Along with this, the Indian Penal Code also offers other legal provisions to teach the prankster a lesson, depending upon the nature of the conversation; not to forget the provisions scripted under section 67 series of the Indian information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) , compounded with each other, which can curb the ugly part of the right to sexual pleasure.

This Durga puja season may see many women browsing the net more than browsing the puja pandals and the Durga temples. So all the daughters of Durga, be careful when you accidentally or even casually bump on such “asuras”, for awareness is the best weapon.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2011), “Be aware of online mischief mongers”, 6^thOctober,2011, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized July 11, 2011

The body language counts

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

Recently I was working on one of my papers on sexting. When I started searching for literature and related informations , I came across many sites ………..adult networking sites to be precise, where men and women are depicted as ‘entertaining objects’ for sexually gratifying the site’s viewers. Many of these sites had links titled ‘amateur videos’. I did not have time to research whether these links were really ‘amateur’ or they were created by matured revenge takers. But this is for sure that many women do fall in the pit due to such video communications. Some sites like Yahoo messenger, Skype , Gtalk etc , provide this unique opportunity to see and talk to ‘friends’, relatives, colleagues etc. Now a days such video communications have become easily accessible, which was unthinkable even 15 years back. But the truth is, this ‘easy accessibility’ has made the users of the modern communication device ‘feel free’ when in front of the computer screen. No, it is not the pre teens, teenagers or young adults alone, who may expose their skin too much in video chatting sessions, but adult male and females also may expose themselves too much .

In my earlier blogs, I had written about how women tend to fall prey to sexually pervert ‘boyfriends’. One must remember that being emotionally over powered by some one completely unknown ( and even known acquaintances too) and exposing oneself in front of the web cam may be a foolish job that one may repent for later. At the same time, users, especially women must not exhibit such body language in front of the webcam that can be (mis)construed to mean that the women is actually ‘inviting’. Such body languages may include intentionally bending too much in front of the camera by which cleavages or parts of the breasts can be seen, throwing flying kisses (especially when a person completely unknown to the woman is chatting), removing of the dress or parts of the dress and cuddling up the pillow when chatting etc. I know many women feel free in front of the computer when known friends appear for chat over the blue screen. But in the Skype especially, one can capture still pictures from video chattings. One can even record the whole video chatting without letting the other user know that she is being ‘recorded’. This indeed gives a broad chance for misuse of ‘friendship’. In India, the penal code may restrict any such video clipping, still pictures etc , published in the net which may portray women in obscene and vulgar fashion, by tagging it as ‘harming the modesty of women’ under section 509; the Information Technology Act may restrict such images by tagging it as conveying obscenity under section 67A and above all, the Indecent Representation of women Act may also be pulled in to save the woman in question. But do remember, voluntary invitation of trouble by using bad body language will inevitably land the victim in deeper trouble even if there are laws to prevent to floating of such ‘moments’ in the net. Many women do repent the ‘opening up’ later. Hence be casual yet formal when in front of the webcam. Do not let anyone take advantage of your feminity and do not convey the message that ‘I am available for messy situations’.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2011), “The body language counts”, 11^th July,2011, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized March 8, 2011

Grooming the woman for bad

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

Grooming the adult women had remained a much unrecognized trend of unethical cyber conduct. Often it is thought that it is the children who can be groomed for the purpose of cyber pornography. I defy such theories, for I have experienced myself how a new internet user can be groomed for evil purposes. It is particularly very disturbing especially when the user is a woman and who needs emotional supports from outside her own family. The grooming sessions can take place in the public or even in private chat rooms, personal walls or scrapbooks of social networking sties like Orkut, Facebook etc, message boxes and even emails. The typical grooming lesson starts with warm friendly conversations between the harasser and the victim. the groomer may slowly overpower the victim to obey the ‘orders’ such as posting personal pictures, personal informations including financial informations etc; and to restrain her from discussing about her internet activities with her immediate family members like her husband, children and/or friends and relatives etc . The victim then becomes confident about her relationship with the groomer and may not accept any resilience as such when she is restricted from using the internet for reaching the groomer.

The grooming session may end when the victim is finally ‘exhibited’ in the internet in a very derogatory form and the perpetrator starts search for another ‘fresh prey’.

True, online grooming of the modern adult women is not an easy task……………..But I can neither accept the fact that these women who may be well educated, can not be groomed. I am using internet for several years for now and I have come across several women who come to internet with a crave to have friends , a good listener (read ‘reader’) of their every day routine of juggling between husband, children and may be professional work. Home makers especially take internet as a real window to the outside world when their domestic chores are over and husband and children leave home for office and school college purposes. Mostly their status message in their networking profiles are construed as green signals for the groomers.

But do remember, adult female victims of online grooming may never get a favorable position when it comes to comparison between child victims of online grooming and adult victims of online grooming. The obvious reason lies with the level of maturity of the victims. Hence, it is best to be aware of the malpractices in the internet………….. ‘do not talk with strangers’ still stands good for adults especially when the stranger suddenly wants to make one more confident by his warm soothing words.

Wishing all women users a very happy women’s day

”, 8^th February,2011, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized December 18, 2010

Is your (virtual) boyfriend goading you to show yourself nude? Beware! He might be a cyber sex-addict.

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

Very recently I opened an account in MySpace with a gender neutral name to get some more friends. As usual of the cyber trend, I received couple of messages from men and women and when I clicked on the women’s profiles I felt I have wrongly clicked on some porno site. All those girls who sent me requests braved to show their nude body parts, some could have very well be fitted as advertisements for stylish inner wears for girls, some had smoky eyes, some wore decent dresses but maintained a “breast line” for their hemline to show off their cleavages. Some had low hip jeans pants which ended almost immediately where they begun. Well, I did receive request from men too; some had amazing six packs like movie stars, some had wonderful tattoos on their strong arms, some were again modeling for men’s under wears and some had very decent dresses on them but the tagline told me they are mischievously decent. Well, this happens with every new user of social networking sites. Women users may get to see many male profile owners who are “really interested” in having a “relationship”. Beware if such profiles show a host of female friends who may have “sexy” profile screen names or sexually explicit pictures like women in bikini, in see-through lingerie, or women showing only nude breasts or groin or parts of these nude body parts. No genuine user would create such profiles in social networking sites specially made for all age groups for socializing. Either these profiles are impersonated profiles or are created for completely adult entertainments. Mostly men, who display such friend-list, suffer from addiction to cyber sex. This term represents a conglomeration of sexual activities including masturbation by getting high level sexual arousal after viewing the sexually arousing images/audio/video movie clippings etc.(see Cybersex. (2010, December 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:19, December 18, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cybersex&oldid=401497743). If befriended, such men can ask the female friend to come over for live video chat or show her pictures or can even ask for showing nude body parts like bare shoulders, cleavages, size of the waist, naval, the colour of the bra or even panties. Well, the man may not ask these things right at the beginning of the chat or socializing, but he may slowly gain the confidence, and then groom the victim to fulfill his emotional and sexual needs and finally go ahead with these “demands”. If the demands are not fulfilled, the ‘good friend’ can even turn a real ‘hard nut’ who can misuse the previously captured images or personal pictures of the victim that are shared with him.

In India, the recent Bombay High Court judgment about viewing of pornography in private places as a personal right (see http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_bombay-high-court-says-no-to-blanket-ban-on-porn-websites_1357395) may really put such cyber sex addicted people in an advantageous position and the victim may have really nothing to do except repenting over her decision to allow this ‘friend’ to ‘watch’ her for his satisfaction. Hence be careful when choosing a virtual boyfriend. Remember “prevention is better than cure”.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2010), “Is your (virtual) boyfriend goading you to show yourself nude? Beware! He might be a cyber sex-addict”, 18^th December, 2010, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized October 21, 2010

Match making sites ………do they really match?

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER

Couple of years back one of my friends had a tiff off with her boyfriend and she decided to take revenge in a unique way…….she created a profile in a matrimonial site with a fictitious name and bio to show her boyfriend how much in demand she is still now. Fortunately she was wise enough not to give her own personal details except her good old granny’s phone number which she often used as a ‘spare number’ . In no time, her inbox was flooded with proposals asking her to send her picture immediately. Some were from the prospective grooms; some were from the parents of ‘boys’. She played a trick. She chose one proposal from a prospective groom who described himself ‘good looking’, ‘in his thirties’, ‘caring’, ‘well paid’ and ‘only son of parents’. She fixed up an appointment with this Mr. Handsome in a public place (well, she knew it was a ‘game’ so she dared not to see him in a restaurant or a ‘lover’s corner’). He obviously exhibited a very charming picture in his profile page and he indicated that he would be in ‘pink’ shirt as my friend loved that soothing colour. She reached the place in time and hid herself in the crowd to keep a watch on this Mr. Pink. There he appeared, gave a message to her mobile about the exact place where he is standing and told he is eagerly waiting to see his lovely would be bride.; he was medium built, half bald, had a good bulging belly. My friend probably guessed all these. She came back, changed her number and withdrew her profile from the site……….Both of them were not right and my friend promised that never again she would play such tricks…… and perhaps the man was a habitual ‘flirt’.

This is not a new story for many readers…..isn’t it? Cheating through matrimonial sites has become very common phenomena now days. Although the sites do caution the viewer about reliability of the informations provided by the account creators, many parents rely on the face value of the profile holders than the real value of their daughter’s life. At the same time, I also know another friend of mine who is now leading a blissful married life due to matrimonial site…she chose her husband from the matrimonial site herself after having a thorough investigation done by her friends and acquaintances and finally she even dropped in herself with her parents to check the reality.

Marriages through online matchmakers really have a 50-50 chance especially when one does not search properly. Internet has given a platform to create numerous avatars of oneself and it has indeed become very easy to cheat. I have noticed that there are sockets which can easily pull the ‘ignorant’ participant/s to the vicious web; these are as follows:

Anxiousness of parents who want their daughters to get married by hook or crook;

Eagerness to get ‘foren’ bridegrooms;

Presumption that the ‘boy’ really earns and owns a good fortune;

The peculiar Indian mindset that ‘looks really don’t matter for men when they can feed their wives well and look after them comfortably’;

Lack of awareness about the dangerous ‘side effects’ of internet match-makings.

Some may argue……what is so special to talk negatively about internet matchmaking when people can be cheated in offline real life match making too……Well, there IS some thing to talk about. There are always chances that the girl’s personal informations and pictures are misused and her reputation is so much jeopardized that she may never be considered as a ‘good girl’ in the marriage market. What pains me more is, these innocent victims become heavily depressed and withdrawn for some mischievous activities of others.

Well, the good news is, in India, we do have good laws both under Indian Penal code and also under Information Technology Act which can nail the charlatan. Both these laws can be applied to book the mischief monger under sections dealing with cheating and impersonating primarily and also under provisions which safeguard one’s privacy, reputation etc. But the bad news is, suing the matrimonial sites may not be fruitful for the fraudulent activities of the fake ‘prospective groom’, as they enjoy immunity from this very liability (especially when they have already exercised due diligence).

Hence the only way to be safe when going for matchmaking through internet is, to search and research and then refresh the search.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2010), “Match making sites ………do they really match?”,October 2010, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized September 1, 2010

EXTORTION OF A DIFFERENT KIND

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
www.cybervictims.org

As practitioners, students and also researchers, all of us are familiar with the term extortion and its related consequences. But I wish to discuss something other than ordinary extortions. No, it is not coercion for money, but it is coercion for sexually explicit pictures and lust for having such images in one’s personal computer for further purposes; or in one word ‘sextortion’ that is the prime focus of this blog of “Centre for Cyber Crime Victim Counselling (CCVC)”©. The word sounds peculiar……isnt it ? But most researchers on cyber crime and internet pornography, especially those who are dealing with child-victims, may have come across this term. It is actually a form of exploitation where the accused coerces the victim for more sexually explicit pictures for future hardcore pornographic use.* Often Sextortion may also begin with ‘sexting’** by the victim himself/herself; that’s a risky game in real sense where one captures self nude or seminude images and floats it in the web to ‘show off’. General internet users, women and children especially may face this problem where harasser may suddenly start playing dirty tricks after he befriended the victim under the guise of ‘visitor’. Perhaps exchange of a few words about sexual orientation, personal interests and a peep into the personal albums may be enough for extorting sexually explicit images. There are umpteen numbers of examples where teenagers and young adults had fallen victims of this. Especially high school teenagers, who may have started experiencing the adventurous, daredevil days, may be in the high risk zone. No wonder, in some cases women are also the vulnerable victims especially when they are novice internetters and befriend one and all through chatrooms, social networking sites or even dating sites. Sextortion could happen in ways one can only think of in his/her bad dreams ……may be peer networking and then hacking or may be simple data mining from ‘unprotected’ online profiles. My quick research on this topic lead me to a news clipping “Man pleads in apparent sextortion case” (could be found in http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/man-pleads-in-apparent-sextortion-case-20100719) and I was nearly shocked to find this man was pleaded NOT GUILTY for a train of federal charges which he confessed to have done on the instigation of some over zealous cautious male intimate partners.

What could have been the case as per Indian laws? Well, seen from a holistic legal point of view, extortions such as these could be a complete NO as per our laws. There are several penal provisions both from the Indian penal Code and also from the Information Technology Act 2000 (amended in 2008) which could team up to give a good lesson to these sorts of accused. Note that these provisions may push these types of cases to non bailable offence also especially when the harasser decides to play over smart.

But do not think these are new ‘games’ in the Indian cyber space. Such tricks are already experimented and many innocent victims do tend to fall in the trap. Hence be careful.

*see Sextortion. (2010, August 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:48, September 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sextortion&oldid=379740340 and also see “Feds: online sextortion of the teens on the rise” .Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sextortion_teens

** see Sexting. (2010, August 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:24, September 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sexting&oldid=382156023

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2010), “Extortion of different kind”, 1st September, 2010, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com“

Uncategorized June 26, 2010

Abuse of intimate moments in the cyber ways

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN
http://www.cybervictims.org

Often I am asked why plight of adult women in the internet bothers me more than children. It is disheartening to note that adult women often suffer more than children do and few understand the problems. There are many vicious windows which portray women in nasty styles .Earlier when I was researching on these sites, especially on adult entertainment sites, I noted that these sites present apparently “very legal” pictures; for instance, the viewer needs to certify that he/she is not a minor, the sites display that models have acted with their free will and none are minors even though some may look like minors. But what whirled around in my head was……… are these models playing really as per their free wills? Well, in certain circumstances I doubt and I have every reason to doubt. As a cyber crime researcher and counselor, I get to see many cases where releasing either original or morphed intimate pictures, videos etc, showcasing women especially, has become a fashion for showing revenge taking power for many broken hearts. Couple of months back, I wrote a blog on ‘forced pornography’. Well, in this blog I wish to discuss about some ‘real breach of trusts’ through adult entertainment sites, ‘storage websites’ with capacity of store huge MBs of files , peer to peer networking etc. Often men and women enter into ‘forbidden experiments’ either coerced by emotional needs or just for experimenting. In such intimate moments either both of them consent or one is forced to consent by the other partner for emotional needs. What the female partner do not consent for, is clicking her in this ‘too much private’ situation. These people are mostly not married couple but may be committed or may not be. Well, this had never remained new phenomena, but what emerged as a new fashion is to take undue advantage of this situation in the very cyber way. Often these pictures or videos are offered to many unwanted sites which are possibly the best revenge for breaking hearts one can think of. A year back I came across an article which pointed out how possibly internet helps to carry on trafficking of women for sex industries. Perhaps this is one of easiest ways to traffic women virtually. Now, where does the breach of trust or abuse of intimate moments arise here?

Internet has become a way of life for us. Internet provides every single information we need. Practically after the internet revolution many people forgot the ways to real life libraries, smell of old and new books and even the patience to read the good old books. Well , well…….definitely I belong to one of those who now rarely visit libraries. People of my sort love to stay in the internet as long as it is possible and no wonder, several men and also women love to get sexual pleasure from such adult entertainment sites. Imagine the plight of those innocent women who would have popped up in these sites without their knowledge and even consent. How much humiliation these women may go through when some inquisitive, caring friend or relative makes an international call/long distance call /lands up at the door step suddenly to let such victims know what has happened…!

Do our Indian laws say some thing? Well, off course yes. The Indian Penal Code, the century old caretaker of Indian victims’ rights may be mentioned as foremost. Section 509 strictly prohibits harming the modesty of women with a penal punishment which may run to one year imprisonment or fine or both. The mischief was given a more strict approach through Indecent representation of women (prohibition) Act 1986, which through section 3 and 4 aims to prohibit indecent representation of women; this Act writes a stronger note when such women victims are depicted in that particular indecent fashion without their consent and knowledge. Quite in the same line, Indian information Technology Act (Amended) 2008 also prohibits intrusion into the privacy of women ( and also men) in the cyber way through section 66E which prohibits voyeurism and prescribes punishment for three years and also a huge monetary fine; the Act further prohibits publishing obscene materials under section 67 and materials containing sexually explicit materials under section 67A . Note that the later section prescribes a noncognizant, non bailable imprisonment for a term of maximum 7 years.

Readers, don’t be surprised to note that even though these ‘seems to be strong laws’ operate in our country, innocent women are still being exhibited in these adult entertainment sites. Humiliation piles up, victimization leaves a deep trauma and those behind these nasty activities feel this is the magic of cyber space. People don’t forget, one moment’s mistake can land you in legal trouble for ever……………no matter whether it is cyber space or real space, law will never forgive such mischief mongers.

Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2010), “Abuse of intimate moments in the cyber ways”, June 2010, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com”