INDEPTH: HOW SAFE IS THE INTERNET

ARE WOMEN ALSO UNSAFE ON THE INTERNET?

The unsafety of women in India is a concerning issue, but it seems like women are also unsafe on the internet. By the growing number of cyber crimes in the city as well as the country, it has become a huge social issue.

The Ministry of Home affairs said that it’ll train 27,500 personnel across the country to tackle cyber crimes against women and children."Ministry of Home Affairs is implementing Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children scheme in the period 2017-2020 which aims to train 27,500 police personnel across the country in the field of cyber domain," Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said. Such measures are necessary to take to protect safety and rights of women.

Girls usually face the problem of violation of privacy with their pictures being screenshot and used elsewhere either on vulgar pornographic websites or by fake accounts on Instagram and Facebook. “The bigger problem of joining Instagram or Facebook is the unknown men who start sending messages or obscene pictures. Even though my profile will be private I’ll get creepy text from guys” says Aarti Baheti, an avid social media user. This scenario is no less like guys hollering and catcalling women on roads. When asked about this problem to girls in cannaught and JNEC campus, around 40% of girls reported about getting stalking messages from unknown guys whereas few girls reported about their pictures being found on others account. “I think the best thing facebook has ever done so far is secured our profile pictures. Now we can post picture knowing that it’ll be safe and no one can misuse it” says Vaishnavi P. Terribly Tiny Tales, a media company over instagram recently launched a campaign against the stalkers and privacy violators over social media under the hashtag #creepalert. The movement got a lot of support and feedback by the people and especially girls sharing pictures of the obscene, ridiculous texts they received over time.

In Aurangabad too, a unit for cyber crime prevention and training shall be started soon to lower the cyber crime rates against women and children and develop a safe and secure social media atmosphere for the women using it.