Women and the Cyber world

Cyber Crime is a global concern today.Advancement in technology and the enhanced use of computers has brought into focus the security of individuals. The IT act 2009 was enacted to combat terrorism but it is debatable whether the act has been successful in safeguarding the security of women. With the coming of social media a whole generation hasregistered themselves in the various applications, not appreciating that this discloses their personal identity to a virtual public.It is said that every second, one woman in India gets tricked to be a victim of cybercrimes and the online platform is now the new platform where a woman’s dignity, privacy and security is increasingly being challenged. Trolling, abusing, threatening, stalking, voyeurism, body-shaming, defaming, surveillance, revenge porn and other forms of indecent representation of women are rampant in the cyber world.

Amongst the various types of cybercrime that occurs against women are cyber stalking, cyber pornography and morphing.Cyber stalking involves following a person’s movements across the internet by posting messages (sometimes threatening) on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering chat-rooms frequented by the victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc. Cyber stalking also involves crimes against children. Cyber pornography includes pornographic websites; pornographic magazines produced by using computers (to publish and print the material). Pornographic materials can be reproduced more quickly and cheaply on new media like hard disks, floppy discs and also in CD-Roms. Morphing is image transformation of the original picture by any unauthorized user with fake identity. Pictures are downloaded by fake users and re-posted/uploaded on different websites by creating fake profiles after editing it.

In cybercrimes against women, the effect is more mental than physical while the focus of the laws ensuring women’s security is more on physical than mental harm. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India does not maintain any separate record of cyber-crimes against women. S.67 and S.67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 are the first provisions dealing with obscenity on the internet in India. Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act etc., in electronic form extends from three to seven years of imprisonment and fine ranging from five to ten lakh rupees. In addition under Section 469if anyone creates false document or fake account which harms the reputation of a person he/she can be punished for up to 3 years and fine or both.

However, despite these safeguards, there are a number of cases of cybercrime that remain unregistered. Indian women are not able to report cybercrimes immediately as they are not really aware as to where to report such crimes or are reluctant to do so due to social embarrassment they don’t want to face. Most of the problems can be solved if women report the crime immediately and warn the abuser about taking strong legal action. However, there are also cases where despite complaints the abusers have not been punished.In 2015, Section 66 A of Information Technology act was struck down by the Supreme Court. This section said that offensive messages sent via phone or computer is a punishable offence. However, the term ‘offensive’ was not clarified by the law or the judicial institution and thus this section was revoked by the Supreme Court.It is these loopholes that need to be plugged if laws against cybercrime against women are to be effective.

Shrimanti Ghosal