http://www.cybervictims.org
Bal diwas or children’s day is observed all over India on 14th
November, the birth date of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister
of India. In the earlier days children’s
days were celebrated especially to celebrate the child rights, spread awareness
against child labour and about necessity of education and good values among
children. But with the passing of the time, the need for using children’s day
for addressing different child related issues was realised by child right
activists, NGOs, schools and also the government. Considering that this is the
age of internet and children are smarter than adults ( in many aspects) when it
comes to use of internet and digital communication technology, it becomes very
important to include a session to let the children express their own opinion as
how they would like to see the internet –connected world around them. Any research on usage of smart phones may
show that there is a difference in ratio of social media users and smart phone
users (who may use sophisticated phones but not social media). CCVC conducted
one research last year titled “”Harassment via WhatsApp in Urban and rural
India (see http://www.cybervictims.org/CCVCresearchreport2015.pdf )
which showed such difference as well as the types of harassments one may
receive through WhatsApp. Nonetheless, children from the age group of 5/6 are
also using such technology and they have become experts in
sending/receiving/sharing contents. What bothers me is when a minor user gets
trapped in the tangled net, he/she feels extremely panicked because there is generally
no adult with whom he /she may share the information who can guide him/her
properly. This is mainly because the child may have used digital communication
technology and shared contents without letting the parents or elders know about
it. Often parents or elders tend to keep the children busy with tabs or smart
phones and they may never know what sorts of dangerous habits they are
introducing to children. The later not
only start experimenting with the camera devices, they may also access unwanted
staff not only on internet, but also those stored in the phone or tab itself. I
have seen many children using parent’s Facebook or WhatsApp accounts to send
unwanted contents to other ‘friends’ . Have we ever thought how children are
growing their own network of friends through their parent’s profiles? It is
‘experience’ that makes them perfect to communicate with their known friends
and then venture for unknown. Often children ask their classmates to log in
through their parents’ profiles at particular times. Slowly they venture to a new world of surfing
alone or even creating their own identities in social media alone. For this
transition, it does not take much time. Consider the scene at local parks, busy
market areas or shops.... you would get to see every second child trying to take
a video or photo and invariably, he/she may circulate it via Whatsapp or any
similar messaging platforms to his/her relatives or parents’ friends whom he
/she tracks for updates.
This habit, if not properly guided, may turn dangerous for
the photographer as well as the subjects. While stakeholders are concerned
about effects of cyber bullying, one must understand that presently video
graphing hitting, pushing, physical
bullying and circulating the same to others ( which is also called happy
slapping) is becoming a chosen trend for youngsters. Because of children’s
curiosity to learn the new technology, perpetrators may misuse them as ‘agents’
of criminal activities and even use them as victims. There are many resources
to know what sorts of victimisations are happening targeting children and
matured teens. But how about motivating the victim child to come out of the
trauma and not to turn into an offender him/herself? In my recent publication
where I have explained our theory called “irrational coping theory” in relation
to cyber crimes,(Halder, D., & Jaishankar, K. (2015). Irrational Coping Theory and Positive Criminology: A Frame Work to Protect Victims of Cyber Crime. In N. Ronel and D. Segev (Eds.), Positive Criminology (pp. 276 -291). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-74856-8.) it was shown how victims may turn into offenders by taking up
irrational coping mechanism and then turn into offenders themselves. This children’s day should be taken as a day
to spread such awareness among all, especially to those children who had been victimised . In
this connection, I must mention about a video I came across in Facebook. The
video running for less than two minutes showed the changes in facial expression
of a woman who had been targeted by curious people to answer several unwanted
and hurting questions and comments. At the end of the video her face lit up
when she started speaking about a few people who came up to her to support and
share their own experiences. Her face no longer showed the pain, disgust,
insult or anger. Any victim, including victims of cyber crimes, especially
child victims, undergoes similar situations when they have to encounter the
after effects of victimisation. When a child victim of cyber crime cannot share
the details of victimisation to people near to him/her anticipating more
harassment, scolding and even physical beating or hitting, he/she feels
extremely pressurised to take measures which are extremely dangerous. There are
umpteen numbers of examples of children trying to contact hackers, attempting
to commit suicide or getting severe depression due to the cyber harassment: all
such decisions may also be caused due to this particular issue of not being
able to communicate with elders, especially parents and considerate teachers. If children are more open with their parents
and teachers on such issues and the later reciprocates to their needs, the
situation can be much different.
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. (2015), “Render
your support for a child victim of cyber crime”
”, 14th
November, 2015 , published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
