All for social networking sites

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The Red Cross in Tirunelveli has given a petition to the District authorities to take a serious note of the teenage bike riders, most of whom do not hold proper license, do not know the road safety rules, yet own a ‘dangerously fast’ ambition to create dare devil road show. Today morning the result of the petition was visible in every nook and corner of the city. The police and the Highway petrol were blocking teenagers who were rushing to their schools on their bikes. A good move indeed. These children needed a serious warning from the police, let not be from their own parents or guardians. But the story does not end here. Just a couple of days back a young life ended sadly due to such freak accident. The accident was so fatal that it left deep impact on every body, including the Red Cross who very wisely felt this IS the time to put a STOP for these kids. One mother of another teenager gave me the most shocking news…. Who motivated these kids to be dare devil? Not the movie stars apparently, neither the video games on car races; it was the ‘wish to be a hero through social networking sites ’mindset  of these kids which was the main factor that pushed them to their death.

            Most of these school going teenagers in India are becoming addicted to social networking sites. I have myself checked some of the student’s profiles and was quite numb to see their photo albums. No, it was not sexting; it was neither any other person’s (especially girls) morphed pictures, but some of the pictures did show heroic postures on the two wheelers. These pictures give the kids a great ego boosting, especially when others comment on these pictures. When we were high school/college  students , many  of our classmates, senior school mates  used to get  ‘good lessons’ from their guardians, from our teachers as well as the local elders  when   they tried to impress others, especially we girls by doing (un)heroic activities on their bi-cycles or  on the foot boards of local buses. Using of motor bikes at the age of 16/17 was still a dream for many. Many such ‘heroes’ were thrashed by elders by words like “eta ki circus hochche”?( do you think this is a circus ?). Soon they were reduced to the position of ‘jokers’. But they failed to create such huge impact on their friends and juniors as today’s social networking teens are creating. Indeed, this generation is more matured and smart than our generation. But it pains me to think how this generation is misusing the special networking sites to spread the message of deadly happiness.

Wishing all my readers a happy and safe September.

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), “All for social networking sites”, 31^st  August,2011, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/

The café with better responsibility

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Not very long ago, a pub in western India witnessed violent harassment of women. The media showed the glimpses how women were literally thrown off from the premises by some religious extremist groups. Their only ‘crime’ was they entered the premises to have hard liquors. The fundamentalist group contended that drinking culture among women would spoil the Indian cultural heritage, maximum of which is carried out through the behavioral aspects of women in the society. These groups were angry with the pubs ; but they were more angry with the women who ‘dared’ to drink hard liquor in public. This incidence evoked a huge debate in urban Indian societies regarding the pub –culture and also the café culture to a certain extent. I am including café culture here intentionally to denote the growing culture of ‘addiction’ among men and women and legal powers or licenses of the cafes and pubs to provide people some thing to rest their nerves.

It is ironical now as how addiction to cyber space has started getting recognition from behavioral scientists. Not long ago in India cyber cafes were the only places where people could access the internet. Within 4-5 years cheaper rates of broadband had made almost every moderate Indian household to have internet connection. But, cyber cafes still remain as a chosen place to rest the nerves for some. Many visit the local cafes as an alternative when their home net connections are disrupted, some visit the cafes as halt inns when they are on move and are reluctant to carry mobile nets, some visit the cafes to see and connect with the world under camouflage. The last category of people can be dangerous. The recent news about terror threats through the emails showed that many of such incidences have taken place from cyber cafés. People who intend to create trouble with the help of their cyber identities may take to cafes in order to misguide the procedural investigations of the police, for cafes have their own IP addresses which may not match with the actual residing places of the users. No doubt, the government has become strict and vigilant enough in ordering every cyber café to have user’s data written separately in log books through the proposed Information technology guidelines for cyber café rules ) 2011 (section 2bb of this proposed rule defines log register as “a register maintained by the Cyber Café for access and use of computer resource”); the rule has also proposed that the cafes responsibility must also include prohibiting any user from accessing the computer or computer networks established in the café unless

1. the intended user produces a valid identity proof as has been specified under section 4(1) of this Rule;
2. the intended user actually allows the café to store his data through photocopy of the same , as has been specified under section 4(2) of this Rule;
3. if the intended user is a minor , he/she is accompanied by an adult as has been specified under section 4(4) of this Rule;
4.  The accompanying person (if any) of the intended user produces identity data   as has been specified under section 4(5) of this Rule.

This proposed rule has also specified that cyber cafes may also use web cams to have more authentic information about the intended user. In other words, cyber cafes may get full legal recognition under Indian information technology act ,2000( as amended in 2008). Now it is important to note what is the typical legal definition of  ‘cyber café’ under the Indian laws. Section 2 (na) of the Information technology Act . 2000 ( as amended in 2008) defines cyber café as “any facility from where access to the internet is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the members of the public.”  Cyber café therefore has been analyzed as a ‘facility’ by the Indian laws, or rather a service provider.

Coming back to my point on real life pub and café culture in India and the protests by the self declared guardians of civil society, it could be seen that whereas real life cafes need only the valid license to serve good and healthy  food , drinks and hot beverages to rest the nerves of common people, the proposed Rule has made these cafes even more responsible towards protection of civil societies. The users of the facilities offered by the café wont be thrown out by the so called guardians of the civil society for their ‘dare devil’ intentions, but these Rules emphasize that this very responsibility should be shifted to the provider of the facility, i.e the cyber café when the users intend to cross the limits to create real harm to the society.  But the message of the law is clear… unless we the common people are not becoming aware of the ‘happening’ hi-tech thefts; no one can save the world from extremism…remember ‘prevention is better than cure’.

Wishing all my readers a belated very happy friendship day.

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 café with better responsibility

”, 8^th August,2011, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/