Cyber victimization: We can prevent it…..and we will

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

In India, cyber victimization remains a hush hush issue when it comes to individuals. In 2009 I, a lawyer and a Ph.d candidate of NLSIU myself, along with my criminologist husband created “Centre for Cyber Victim counseling”© for the cause of cyber crime victims of India. We are happy to note that our organization’s website http://www.cybervictims.org/ proves useful to many. Indeed, me as a woman and as an internet user also, have been ridiculed and teased several times in the internet and I know there are several men and women who have been victimized like me in the cyber space. I have learnt to use my bad experiences, my knowledge of   law and my legal background for good and I dedicate my experiences for the cause of betterment of the society through “Centre for Cyber Victim counseling”© . Our organization will be celebrating it’s first birthday in July this year and as a first anniversary celebration, we have revamped our organization website and it can be seen @ http://www.cybervictims.org/. We help victims through online counseling and we have teamed up with our national and international knowledge partners to work towards prevention of cyber victimization. We are now spreading our wings and we will be arranging awareness programmes.  As our first initiative, we will be the “support partner” for the first international conference of South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (SASCV) (  http://www.sascv.org/). We are also requesting the print media to contact us for more information in this regard which will be a fruitful effort towards prevention of cyber crime.

From my own personal experiences I can say “being a victim” is the hardest truth one may have to come across. I started ‘interneting’ since 2005 .As a new owner of a personal computer and the broadband connection; I loved to mail my friends and cousins in different cities and countries. I was practically confined in a house with a two year old baby and some arrears in for my   Master of Law (ML) degree examinations. I felt ridiculous with no law teachers who can guide me for the study materials, no fellow students with whom I can discuss and no friends around to whom I can confide how hard it is write exams with a two year old baby. I didn’t take to depression –drugs , instead I went for internet. I started getting huge study materials and friends .Well,   I did pass the exams well, but I didn’t leave internetting even after I was conferred ML degree. Those days privacy in the internet was relatively little known issue. I became members of couple of social networking sites and within days my inbox was swept with teasing, vulgar messages. I loved to fuss about my husband and I prominently displayed “married” status every where. No wonder, he started getting unwanted mails and bullying attacks soon. In fact I remember a particular occasion when I demanded a dinner outside because he “won a lottery”. Fortunately he is well read and he told me no dinner because that was a fake mail. I really didn’t believe it as long as one of our friends reported to have lost nearly Rs. 25,000/-  .Well, that was one of my first encounters with cyber crime. Slowly my interest grew in this area and I found so many victims of similar incidences around me. I know I may sound odd, but it is a bitter truth …....many don’t know how they are being victimized online and many individuals willingly become victims. “Centre for cyber victim counseling”© is build upon the trust that the victim’s immediate need would be looked after. I call all the victims who fear to face the reality, to really face it bravely. Consider our organization at http://www.cybervictims.org/ as your friend ……we are there to help you. 

How secure are female cyber crime counselors?

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

This blog is dedicated to all female cyber crime counselors who may have come across numbers of harassments in the cyber space for their noble fights to help other victims.

Way back in 2007 when I started experimenting my writing skill with the e-journals and mags ,I never thought what I may have to face finally. I was a very new writer and I approached a cyber law magazine named “Cyber lawtimes.com” for publishing my thoughts. The editor, Ankur Raheja,  an accomplished lawyer himself, was very kind to give me some space in his new venture, the law magazine, to express my ideas about cyber crime against women. Couple of days after my article was published; I started getting mails from individuals asking for “help” and “suggestions” for their own problems in the cyber space. I thank each of these individuals because they were the very first persons to make me understand how grave the problem of cyber crime against women could be. I started developing my own interest in the subject and started my own independent research. I came across numbers of blogs, as well as personalities, professors, lawyers and human right activists who are working on prevention of cyber crime all over the world. I started following blogs and write ups of several female cyber crime activists like Jayne Hithcock, Parry Aftab, Emma , Lynn Roberts, Citron ……to name a few and I was more surprised to see how many of such women activists had been attacked in their personal lives because they are women and they work against cyber criminals. Well, I too have joined the gang of these brave and bold  women and I did taste how it feels to be wounded in their way.

            I read Jayne’s experiences in the cyber space in many of her interviews and her own website @ http://www.jahitchcock.com/. Well it was not because she was a “she” that victimization took place in many occasions, but her being a “she” also contributed to a certain extent in the victimization process. Citron in her article “Cyber civil rights” wrote about numerous law students and female activists who were “Man- handled” for their works in the cyber space……The story actually begins here ……as cyber crime counselor and cyber right activists, many women had to sail  in the rough weather. The very common of all these harassments is probably receiving threatening mails from anonymous individuals. Next in line are obviously defamatory and bullying messages, of which I myself am a victim. Many times my husband, who himself is very much into cyber security issues, has to hear “made up” stories and ‘complains’  about me. Fortunately I haven’t come across any severe cyber sexual threats still now, but the story may not be the same with other female cyber activists. The other big disturbing factor is getting to hear not –so- funny comments about our own ability to carry on the mission because we are “women after all”.  It is really disheartening to see such messages in the inbox or message boxes ……many of you there would be smiling now , thinking “weird …..how come such silly teasing-remarks   can become crime?”…….. well, off course it is “wrong” to insult any woman in this way. Some call it “gender harassment” and  I love to term it “unwanted harassment”.

            Women are not safe….. even if “she” is into prevention /protection unit. Funnily enough, men and women both ‘love’ to  harass women cyber crime activists when it comes to save their own misdeeds .I had  mentioned in my earlier blog in  “When men turn victims  and women the offenders”, (March 2010, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com) as how women also become "cyber harassers". However,as it has always remained….when a woman cyber crime counselor/activist boldly brings up the issue to the law and justice machinery, often “Lady Justice” turns a mute spectator initially,  because  the reporting agency may never understand what the hell has happened that this woman is making such a big fuss out of that small issue…………Well….blame on us ‘human beings’…..we really never think it is not always the children who need protective internet laws but also adults who need little sense of understanding and decency to not to play with fellow human beings with internet as a 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. (2010), “How secure are female cyber crime counselors?” March 2010, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com"

First conference of SASCV

With immense pride, it is announced that South Asian Society for Criminology and Victimology is going to have its first international conference at Jaipur, India. Students, academicians, professionals ...........all are welcome to  participate in the conference. Please visit   http://www.sascv.org/conf2011/ for more informations.Please note, you can present your paper/s on any one of the  themes which are announced in the website and not necessarily cyber crime alone.The  papers would be selected after a high level peer review and you may even get a chance to publish your paper in the "International journal of criminal justice sciences" ( Please visit http://www.sascv.org/ for more informations). 

Debarati

Celebs and crime

This is in sequence of my earlier blog on female actors and their plight in the cyber crime arena posted on http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com titleled "Cyber harassing the women , saga continues for Indian cine stars".to day morning I noticed this particular blog has been copied in another site without clearly giving the original source, i.e, the name of the author, the web resource etc. What I understand  is , probably in my earlier blog in question, I had taken names of few well known glamorous  female actors and that caused my blog and myself to be taken away from me.Sounds funny? well, that's it... woman is again in trouble. This is what I wanted to prove as how female celebs attract unwanted onlookers and also perpetrators in the cyber space.

However, I want to clearly mention that if some one is interested to use my blogs or for that instance, any blog of any individual, the work must be properly cited.please do mention the author's name , the blog's original address and then explain how it really affects you for good or bad.
Hope this creates an awareness again for cyber crime against women in India and world as well..
Debarati Halder, Advocate

Centre for Cyber Victim Counseling (CCVC): A committed organization to help Cyber Crime Victims

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

It had been eight long months since we started Centre for “Cyber Victims Counseling” (CCVC). I felt this is the right time to write a few words about this brain child of ours……me and my husband. We are basically a “Trust”, an all voluntary not for profit NGO with social service agenda, working towards betterment of cyber space. Our primary concern is Indian cyber space. Being a lawyer myself, I felt this is the best way I could contribute to my country and countrymen. Indian cyber space has become more secured than before due to several organizations and individuals who are working on cyber crime issues since couple of years. On behalf of CCVC, we are proud to follow their footsteps.   

 When we conceived the idea of CCVC, I never knew there would be so many responses. Many contacted us for different sorts of help and guidance from within the country as well as outside the country. We in CCVC are thankful to all of you who consider us “worthy friends” to tell your problems. While we were building CCVC, we received many criticisms too. We consider them as treasures in disguise. Feedbacks, guidance and criticisms make CCVC stronger to help the victims, individuals, students and the researchers as well. We are growing in handling each experience of yours. I take this opportunity to thank Jayne Hitchcock, whom I consider as my mentor. I got to learn basic cyber ethics from her. WHOA and Hitchcock were our “motivators” behind starting CCVC.

I know, healing a patient with physical pain is a tough job. But healing a victim of cyber attack is neither an easy task. The pain one goes through remains for long, some times for life. Besides providing counseling to cyber crime victims, what satisfies me more is the blogs I run as a part of CCVC’s activities. These blogs creates awareness about cyber crimes and victimisation. I would be extremely happy to help all who need to know about cyber crime and laws . In the CCVC, we are planning for more activities in the coming months. Do keep an eye on CCVC’c blogs @ http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/ and http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/ to know about our further plans and activities.

CYBER HARASSING WOMEN: THE SAGA CONTINUES FOR INDIAN FEMALE CINE STARS

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

Aishwarya Rai continues to be my dream actress since the day she appeared in the Indian cinemas for the first time. I have a chosen league of movie stars, television actors and media entertainment personalities whom I love to watch on the TV screen as well as in real life. Believe me, I was equally fascinated as well as shocked when I found them in the interent. I was fascinated because Facebook and Orkut helped me to connect with them, see their very private self. I was shocked because when I Google searched their names I got to see ugly sides of their public life. I know, there are thousands of “FANS’ like me who continuously lookout for new developments in their matinee idol’s lives. But there are “fans” who love to cherish these poor human beings in other ways. I saw Aishwarya’s "not wanted" pictures in some “Hot sites”. Others were also not spared,  Katrina, Ceilina Jeitly, Raima Sen …….to name a few. Go for name searching in Orkut or Facebook and you will find umpteen numbers of good, bad, worst and even worser sites depicting female actors in unwanted ways. Cyber tactics are responsible for this. Most of the ‘hot pictures’ some one gets to see of these actors are doctored pictures .Some victims get to know this to their utter shock and , some feel the best way to reduce the menace is to avoid and ignore the paparazzi. But the problem is not limited to sexual depiction only. There are sites to hate them ,there are sites made *with* these poor human beings to show women from all walks of life what mutilation of virtual life could be, and there are people who love to let other know “see this woman of silver screen can beg for virtue”. Stalking, spreading bad gossips, threatening and blackmailing with already available pictures of these actors by cyber assistance have become a cake walk for perpetrators. What amuses me more is these women are even not spared when they want to network with their friends and family through social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace. Way back, I came across such impersonated profiles of leading TV stars which promised to give a “good time” once chatting session starts. My own cousin being in the film fraternity, I know personally how these poor victims of cyber crime can react.

The question is who does it and why it is done? One truth which surprises me is, the perpetrator could generally be a die hard fan who wants to come in touch with the actor by hook or crook. Again, doing pornography business with already available avatars of “wanted” faces is off course a lucrative venture…….well, once the technology works for the entrepreneur, there is no need to hire real life “models” .Ex spouses also fill the fuel sometimes.

When a fraction of these cases get reported, most of the time, more than the police, media investigates the issue and these piles up the humiliation. Imagine when the victim is an upcoming star having a good academic background (especially those who have chosen profession in media and entertainment leaving conventional job offers) and an erudite family and friend circle to lie upon, what psychological stress her peers could go through, leave her own mental state of affairs. No doubt, many times such types of cases are registered faster and given good priority for the name sake. But that does not solve the problem always. A personal meeting with the ‘heart throb’ and ‘promises’ to remove the links may end the case before the Judiciary gets the chance to experiment the case with newly formed protective laws. The story does not end here, this sets an example for other die hard fans to find out better ways to interact with the chosen actors. 

Does any one care that this adds up to cyber harassments and the law remains mute spectator?

Defaming women in the Indian cyber space; does anybody bother about penal laws?

CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

When I was a new internet user, I loved to experiment with my virtual avatar by befriending one and all. I never used to think this may bring unwanted “danger” or “perpetual nuisance”. At first, it was hotmail where I created an account and way back in 2004/5 , my email was the only identity for me in the cyber space. There were no social networking and no online chatting options available to me other than the yahoo messenger which I used to talk to my sister who stays over seas. Well, I had very limited knowledge about networking then. But slowly internet addicted me. I became quite a darling to internet predators who invaded my yahoo id…..I started getting funny mail messages and I sometimes ignored them, sometimes answered very foolishly. But, “they” never crossed their limits. In a way, probably these “senders” understood that I am not a good dish either for them or for the purpose of serving to others as I never shared any of my pictures or informations online and I was never interested in “intimate chattings”. But never mind, I won’t lie….. Sometimes, I loved those pranky messages. In no time, I was introduced to social networking and I used to hit the sites at least twice a day. I found a new world altogether. This time also, I never minded to choose friends randomly whoever peeped in. I felt quite comfortable to share my informations this time, as I believed, most of them out there are telling the truth. But yes, by the third month, I understood why it is called the “vicious net”. I saw quite a lot of groups or communities making fun of women…………..ordinary individuals as well as celeb women. I was not surprised when I saw some filthy comments in my own scrap book too. I knew it was time for me to close doors to unknown visitors. I did exactly that. But I still I cant accept when I see people making fun of women in the internet. Sadly, Indian women are humiliated by their counterparts not only in the real world, but in the “unreal world” too. It has become quite a fashion to use the computer keyboard to undress a woman and tell a tale about her to others. Remember “pen is mightier than sword” theory? Some “nuts” execute the theory in a digital fashion in most unwanted way.
But hey, come’ on. We have a strict law against it. The Indian Information Technology Act 2008 voices the concern .Remember, if some one wants to defame the woman online with false “stories” (enough to make the victim “annoyed” and the recipient “confused”) and sends it to a huge audience for cherishing the “gossip”, Section 66A will promptly sentence him/her for imprisonment which may extend to two to three years; If the perpetrator prefers to put on filthy “lascivious” words and pictures of his victim/s by doctoring her/their picture, then section 67 awaits for you with imprisonment sentences which may lock you in for two to three years; if the perpetrator wants to make the victim “ashamed”, “disgusted” or “traumatized” by publishing compromising pictures where he claims to accompany his victim, no matter what, be prepared to be “in” for minimum five years under section 67 A. Perpetrator, you may not be allowed to move freely because if section 67A tames you, there may not be any bail. And, do not forget the monetary fines along with imprisoning sentences. Your bank balance may become NIL . Ohhhh..wait.. Indian Penal code will play a foremost role to book the perpetrator under several strong sentences too; sections 500,501 and 509 will be the foremost of them when the question involves defamation and ruining the modesty of the woman. Section 292 A also awaits to be “employed” in, if the perpetrator plans to circulate doctored pictures, pictures of intimate moments or ‘please keep secret’ stuff to blackmail his victim.

So, next time if you want to hurt a woman in the most chosen mischievous fashion, remember, it is no more a “child’s play”.