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All is not well out there in our virtual circle. As the evil tentacles are out to ruin your real life enroute the virtual passage, this weekend seek an answer to the cyber pest
Rajarshi Bhattacharjee I Gurgaon
The Cyber Cell of Delhi Police registered a case on a school girl’s complain that her fake profile has been posted on popular online social community - Orkut, on February this year coining her ’sex teacher’.
Class 12 student of Marigold Public School, Noida arrested on December last year for allegedly putting on Orkut an obscene profile of a Class 12 girl student of another school.
Mumbai teenager, Adnan Patrawala was kidnapped and murdered when he reportedly attempted to meet an unknown lady with whom he got introduced in Orkut.
In a time when even the worst critics of internet will concede that there is hardly a minute of boredom in the cyberspace, the above are just an iota in the ocean of cyber crimes triggered by popular online sites. The recent murder of Adnan Patrawala in Mumbai was just another alarm. With mounting cyber complaints with Delhi Police, its time again for the hi-tech generation to review those popular online communities that are putting personal life of its members at peril.
The problem:
The first doubt to hit us here is, if the online communities are solely responsible for the cyber menaces that are ensnaring its members into crisis. A close look reveals social networking sites such as Orkut, MySpace, Hi5 etc allow its users to join and create any number of social communities, then wash off hands letting users loose to use the portals to vent personal grudges and create hostile communities.
These communities today are also a medium through which predators lure children out of their homes for executing dishonest designs. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Orkut compound such dangers particularly to the youth.
Fake personal profile is another nuisance that a hostile community member resorts to defame other members prompted by personal bitterness. Your picture, personal details and credible informations are copied to create a duplicate profile in the community that are then added with malicious inputs to set among other members in an offensive stance.
Personal inputs as address, phone numbers, employment and financial details are also few coveted lookouts.
The loopholes:
The diversity of threats generated from online social communities reveal a number of escape alleys that calls for attention. When enhancing the age limit for membership is considered one means of reducing the hazards, such limitations are likely to be violated by desperate minors.
The government is also unlikely to impose any ban on online communities since the same can lead to an outcry against freedom of speech and expression. Government intervention under normal circumstances is also ineffectual since the sites are governed by international regulations.
Speaking in regards to Orkut, when Google spokespersons are of the opinion that they are constantly developing new tools to review inappropriate contents on the site, the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police is into profiling communities that are increasingly used by terrorists and gangsters.
"Since the members in these communities are very large, it is difficult to track each and every account but we have asked for the help of service provider to keep a tab on the suspected names and members," said an officer of Delhi Police Cyber Cell.
The solution:
In a scenario so defenceless as these, you might consider shrugging off your shoulder from Orkut or Hi5. However, a comprehensive look into the status of these online communities uncovers the fact that members are most often a victim of their own ignorance and temptations.
Ask yourself if you have spend even five minutes to go through ins and outs of any online community’s privacy policies before registering to it?
Cyber experts in the capital clued-up that users of these communities are often tempted to get introduced with ’virtually interesting’ yet unknown members in the community - point that even if you’ve been involved with a community for a long time, its advisable not to be lulled into a false sense of security!
Ask us, and here are a few help-tips. Be sure to create a strong password when you first sign up to an online community and keep changing passwords every month to be safe. Also check for your name in the community search option once in a fortnight, to verify that a duplicate profile under your name does not exist in the community.
Every fundamental right guaranteed to us is subjected to reasonable restrictions imposed by law. If anybody violates provisions of the restricting laws, he is liable to punishments. However, as cyber vandalism is on the rise taking advantage of lopsidedness of online communities, the first and best option for you is definitely to keep a watchful eye on your virtual identity. Play it safe guys!
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