http://www.cybervictims.org
In India consumption of information technology and
electronic mediums for the same has seen steep high since the new millennium. I
remember a Tamil movie in the late 1990s which showed how the computers would
be used in future; it showed people are literally throwing off their desk
tops to the dustbins since they were
“over used”, people belonging to average
income group have the power to buy laptops and grass root level workers are
using mobile phones. Nonetheless, I am talking about an era when a desk top
computer would have costed not less than twenty thousand rupees ( nearly $400)
and an ordinary mobile phone with no device other than device for speaking and
hearing would have costed not less than two thousand rupees (nearly $40). Cost
of internet and pre paid sim cards for mobile phones were not generally
accessible by people belonging to lower to middle income group. As such, computers and mobile phones were
considered to be prized possessions for the creamy layers. India was slowly
getting introduced to cyber crimes like hacking. Crimes like child pornography,
phishing etc were still considered as “not our problem still now”. Things have
changed since then.
Back in
2012, couple of days ago I was sitting at the railway station waiting for my
train which will connect us to the international flight to Sweden. I was online
through my husband’s IPad, searching for
some last moment details about the conference we were about to attend in couple
of hours. Suddenly a woman shouted at me telling “ you will not spare the
computer even at the railway station? be careful.. somebody might steal it.”
Stunned, I looked at her: the woman must be in her late twenties, in a
dirty sari, neatly pinned up here and there. She was a schizophrenic; must have
been abandoned by her family and she remembers clearly how the computer screen
looks like when one is online. She sat
on the floor near me and from her distracted communication with her imaginary
child, I could clearly understand that she was
persuading the child to not to sit with “mobile phones”. Within an hour or so, I saw another man, a
daily wage earner who commutes from nearby place, speaking loudly over his
prize possession, a cell phone with camera. I remember another incidence: on my
way to Kolkata couple of years back, I got a few co passengers who were
contract labourers from north Indian states. A couple of stations later, a
young woman boarded the same compartment. She was accompanied by a man who
could be her colleague, or even her boyfriend. Both of them looked well
educated and professionals. One of the earlier co passengers made good use of
his mobile phone; he started clicking the camera device randomly. When the
woman noticed it, she instantly demanded not to click her and the owner of the
device politely told her that he is getting accustomed to the device and
doesn’t know how to handle it......lame excuse indeed. The lady’s companion
snatched the phone and found a few pictures of the woman in different poses. He
patiently deleted all of them and warned the owner that if he again does it, he
will take stern action. The woman was probably spared because the owner of the
device got down in the next halt without making any more attempt to ruin the
peace.
What did I learn from all these incidences? Digital
technology if put in wrong hands, can be devastating. We can divide the cyber miscreants in two
different sects: one who do it for fun; one who don’t do it for fun. There are
numerous examples of sexting cases,
phone bullying cases involving children where you can see the first sect of miscreants. In many such
US court cases, defence had established ignorance of the accused. But
what about miscreants who are not minors and who intentionally mishandle it for
the purpose of experimenting the devices? Basically we can do nothing. There is
no law in any country which prohibits ignorant persons from possessing a
digital device with information and communication technology, be it a computer,
or a mobile phone. But off course,
experience can turn an ignorant into a mighty individual. I sadly note that
when laymen such as the above gather experience in handling the devices, the
results may not be good. My assumption may not testify all, but surely would
testify some. The devices have inbuilt
mechanism and the internet always opens it doors with both good and bad shades,
which allures new users to experiment. This can lead to devastating effect
including hacking and sexual offences of cyber space. What these people lack
actually is the knowledge of cyber etiquette. Remember the old tradition
of attaching license for possessing radio?
Perhaps it is time now for the companies making computers and electronic
gadgets like the cell phones to think of attaching a module of user manual including
etiquettes with their products. May be this
could bring down purposeful mishandling of the devices which gives rise to
various sorts of cyber crimes.
Or you need to believe..... no gain no pain...
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), “Misuse of
information technology, digital devices and rise of cyber crimes”, 21st
June,2012, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/”
