Woman you need to go the police … but when?

Friends, I was busy in creating our Centre of Cyber victim counseling for Indian cyber victims(http://www.cybervictims.edu.tf/). Whoooooooooooof, so many obstacles when you plan to do some innovative work and how I was attacked? …. through internet obviously. I was stalked (stalked and me... o yeah... I am also a net surfer after all), bullied (yes my “friends” on the other side picked up verbal duet to make me understand how silly I am ) defamed ( I was “complained” about to my founder –partner of the Centre and even to various forum boards where I had written about my Centre) and still I am virtually alive…...Was this another way to humiliate women?well, from a very feminist view , I would say YES .I am not the only one who had to go through such critical virtual life . Remember? some times ago two young researchers ( they dont belong to our country and this proves how women are targeted every where) were bullied severely in the open forums, blogs websites etc for their personal views which they felt very much "justified"............. then came the case of the blogger who had expressed her thoughts about the famous model in her own personal blog....... unfortuanely in this case both were women and both were equally humiliated by millions of internet users by way of "gossips".

It hurts you know........... not because I am a woman ( well, for all other women who have gone though this) and have emotions a little deeper than my male counterparts, but because I was humiliated without any mistakes of mine.Yup.. that's what the women victims in most cases feel and I am one of them.Well, I must mention that my critics are my best friends , but dude cant you use softer language ? come on .. this is NET ..people are watching you , me and millions of participators/ creators  of "flaming words" in various communities , forums and websites.  We are human beings and do we need this humiliations from a  wider audience?

  Now the question is should I have complained to the police? Some  of my friends say YES I SHOULD HAVE , others say no , you need not. Why not? I am a woman you know and anyone who dares to point at me I dare to take them to the police ……………….the “yes” friends told me. But then why didn’t I go? Hmmmmm something to be discussed and debated over.

1. When you are a woman and you are being stalked by a male identity who refuses to go back home even after you have taken all the safety tips and he keeps on throwing “peculiar” mails or eve teasing remarks , go to the police. Tell them you have taken all sorts of defending measures to save yourself and now it is your turn to hit back. They will hit him back on your behalf.
2. When your email id or your website /blog id is hacked, go the police. Remember the hacker can use you account anyway he/ she wishes to use it. You may suddenly see one day your favorite blog account/website has turned into an office for identity thieves or even porno site.
3. If you see your photo being used for pornography, run to the police.
4. Girl, if you see some suspicious person keeps on ringing your landline and mobile phone and asks you to meet him because he claims to be your “virtual friend” whom you don’t remember / don’t know at all, ask the police to help.

But do remember to visit the “cyber police cell” and not the traditional police stations only.

when to go to the police?

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...

Some tips to save yourselves from the cyber crime

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 .

Social networking websites and the FUN

Unfortunately we women get most of our disturbances from the social networking websites where we are members. what kinds of disturbances?
1. some one keeps on sending friends' request and he /she is a stranger . we hardly know whether the sender is a genuine person and wants a real friendship. here are some tips to find out the genuineness:
Check out the persons' whole profile . if you find any thing suspicious, just put a full stop then and there.
Did you check his wall or message board? if it is open for viewing having a glimpse .
See his photo album and video clippings .
Check the communities he is member to.
You may get an idea who the person is and what is his real aim.
2. You get an unwanted visitor who keeps of scrapping on your message board. What should you do?
check who is the visitor by thoroughly examining his profile .If you feel he is a "real nuisence " click ignore the person / "block the person" button in your profile and immidiately lock your message book.
3. Are you afraid that your personal photographs may be attakced?
Post some pictures that attract less or nil"sexual comments" ;
Do not "invite" your friends to visit your album . This could lead to inviting more unknown friends through your own friends.
4. Be careful of what you post in your profile. Do not post sensitive data about yourself.
5. Never "fight " with your virtual friends using abusive language. Imagine if they revert back, you may find next morning your message board full of bullying words . There are chances that many of your friends may have seen these "hate-words" before you found it out yourself.
6. Do not try to experiment with banned , mischievous or obscene communities. this may lead you to even more bigger danger zone.

In my next blog I will share some tips to avoid any cyber danger that you may have fallen into.until then Bye from Debarati.

TYPES OF CYBER CRIME WOMEN FACE

Cyber crime, a crime the domain of which can be extended to many unknown spaces, happens most rudely to women. In my article on Cyber crime against women, which was published in Cyberlawtimes.com, I had shown some major types of crimes which attack women only in the net. But here I would like to discuss it broadly. Cyber crime can be of two types, (1) attacking the economy, which is also called e- crime like phishing etc, (2) attacking the individual self through emails and social networking websites. I am going to speak about the second point.
All most all sorts of cyber offences like hacking, pornography, breaching of confidentiality and security which are narrated in our Information technology Act 2000, originate mostly from emails and social networking websites. Other than these, some thing more which many of us women suffer in the internet are stalking and harassment. Many cyber law experts explained stalking as “following” the netizen, each of her steps, her conversations, and her activities are followed silently. And then one day she receives an email revealing all her past activities, (some of which she may have wanted to do secretly) and then continuous blackmailing begins. I would say cyber harassment is even more annoying than any of these. A girl keeps on receiving emails from some known person, well, to be precise, NOT SO WELL KNOWN, asking her many embarrassing questions. How about this case where a girl is having an affair secretly and some one constantly blackmail her on her boy friend? Or she feels a threat that this emailing person would tell the world, especially her parents about her love affair? Or even in case of “jittery Ex- boy friend” who keeps on mailing her putting some bombarding words? Seems you too have heard of these sorts of cases? The other window of inviting headaches is the online chatting. Yahoo messenger, AOL, G talks etc gives us opens ways to make friends and speak with them. The girl slowly opens her heart, gets involved more and more and becomes addicted to chatting. She never knows when these girli girli chats become little mischievous and the person sitting on the opposite may not be a REAL FEMALE. She sends her photos, and the “SHE” too ……of some other female net user and the friendship becomes deeper than ever. Now the story takes a U turn when the girl this side suddenly finds her picture or her story in a very “dirty” forum with her real name publicizing her “naughty desires”. The story can be a bit different too when she gets involved with a male in the chatting box. Many of us have heard about internet chatting – partners turn into real life couples giving a fairy tell finishing of the whole story. The other side of the story is there are some instances also when the girl becomes a FOOL by her net boyfriend who could be even of her father’s age. The male partner one day asks her to step in in the real world from the virtual world at some destination. Imagine the situation where the girl in question finds herself in a DEN or even in a DITCH . If she can escape luckily, she becomes so traumatized that she may even refuse to come back to her normal life

Effects of cyber crime in real life

While many of us know what cyber crime through many write ups is, I am going to discuss here what the effects of cyber crime are:

The first reaction of a person who has seen himself in a “smelly ditch” is SHOCK. He can’t believe it is the same old self he knows for so many years... since his birth to be precise. The next thing which comes in mind is “OH …... I HAVE BEEN SEEN IN SUCH AN EMBARRASSING STATE BY MILLIONS OF NET USERS BY NOW …. WHERE DO I HIDE MY FACE?” the psychology of the poor victim is easily understandable. But can any one guess what far reaching effect these after effects and shock would have on the person? Some gets panicked. He can not confide it with his family or friends. The thoughts of making her “secret self” public, bites him day and night. Some start loosing their basic interests in life like eating, socializing or even working the daily chores. The most dangerous of all these is turning himself into a cyber criminal to take revenge of his insults and then slowly the passion of destroying other’s peace at the cost of his happiness grips his mind. Do you remember Kaushambi’s case? The famous Orkut girl who was killed when she tried to confide her love forcefully on her virtual boyfriend? Or the Adnan case? The poor teenager fell into trap due to his own nuisance in the social networking websites. None of these victims or their friends or millions of readers of this news had ever thought cyber socializing could have such far reaching effect. Could we term it “Cyber murder”? Unfortunately in both these cases the accused some where felt the tinge of insult by their victim and took extreme step to teach lessons to the harasser. The school children were overjoyed to read about Bombay Scottish school scandal where some students messed up with their teachers. What a wicked way to teach the teacher!!!!! But what did it teach? The boys can tease their teachers in an open forum now and the police will simply warn them and leave them by strict note “NO NEXT TIME”. Well, this encourages the naughty boys to become more dare devil in the internet and experiment their evil workshop with the fairer sex from an age when they are not even matured to understand “WHATS WRONG IN IT”? Crime gives way to more crimes and a breed of highly intelligent criminals.

THE NEW TRENDS OF CYBER CRIME

This morning when I was browsing the news paper , the news on cyber crime Bill made me extremely happy . the new Bill would give the creators of pornographic messages a good punishment to remember for life . But would this help curb the victimization of women in the net? well, to a certain extent , yes . Now the bad boys of the Indian Internet scenario would feel their life time more dearer. But pornography is not the only crime in the internet which haunts millions of women netizens. The internet crimes are spreading their net even out side the virtual world and the IT Act just stands dumb struck here. Many netizens who dont know the laws ( well, all are not well informed), feel shocked , panicked and even MAD. I wish to help those who are going through these terrible times. Please read my next entries to understand what are the trends of cyebr crime now a days and how can you save yourselves.
Untill then... bye for now and enjoy the Xmas eve.