By- Savina R. Crasto
B.A., LL.M.
Advocate, High Court
Visiting Faculty at Siddharth College of Law, Mumbai
Mob. No.: 9819359544 Email: savicrasto@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Indian social reality is intermeshed with diverse cultures that are reflected in variant gender relations ranging from patriarchal forms to matriliny. The portrayal of this complex range of gender subjectivity can provide an appearance of media’s simultaneous sensitivity and bias on gender issues. The prevalence of gender discourse has ensured that the impact of gender differentiating structures in terms of atrocities such as sati, rape, female foeticide, denial of access to facilities and resources (credit, health care, property) and poor quality of participation in availed avenues is well reported.
Such coverage is interspersed with images of typed male-female roles, beauty as an empowering product and female honor as the epitome of Indian culture. Moreover, the lack of formalized structure allows the media to selectively appropriate and represent gender issues contextually in conjunction with the dominant socio-political norms. Thus gender representation in the media is open to the influence of competing tendencies, be it the market, cultural capital, communalism, electoral politics or women’s empowerment articulations.
The derogatory representation of women in the media is more a social, cultural and economic problem than purely a physical one. The subjection of woman to indecent representation is a global one. Technological developments in information and communications have presented rich and varied opportunities for advancements in the empowerment and participation of women and girls. New platforms now exist from which to raise awareness and disseminate information which have enabled women access to a wealth of information, presented new modes of communication, and new means of mobilization.
Unfortunately, along with the myriad of possibilities brought about by technological developments, new risks and types of violence have also emerged. Technology has also played a role in enabling and exacerbating violence which takes place offline. It offers possibilities to store and share personal information about ones’ movements, social life and finances which have offered increased possibilities for partners or family members to exert control in the lives of others. Furthermore, the anonymity afforded by the internet has exposed women and girls to specific risks, including the possibility that those who they are communicating with are doing so under a false identity. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) notes that almost 1 million adults are the victims of cyber-stalking every year.
In many cyber crimes, women log on to the internet to find their faces have been placed on pornographic pictures. There is more to cyber-violence than pornography, which seems to be the most talked about form of online violence against women and this paper is an attempt to deal with the same.
THE CONCEPT OF CYBER HARASSMENT
Harassment usually involves repeated communications via e-mail or some sort of instant messaging program after the harasser has clearly been told to go away. It consists of the intentional crossing of your emotional or physical safety boundaries. However, boundaries must have been set in place clearly in order for that to apply.
The legal definition of harassment, according to Black’s Law Dictionary is: “A course of conduct directed at a specific person that causes substantial emotional distress in such person and serves no legitimate purpose; or words, gestures, and actions which tend to alarm and abuse (verbally) another person.”
It can be further qualified as “any actions that meet the qualifications of the above definition after the harasser has been told to cease.” The harassment can take place in any electronic environment where communication with others is possible, such as on social networking sites, on message boards, in chat rooms or through email. Just posting a general opinion on a discussion board or in a forum is not considered harassment.
Cyber-stalking is a specific kind of harassment. Cyber harassment and cyber stalking are often used synonymously to describe the actions of people who relentlessly pursue others online with the intention of frightening or embarrassing the victim. The Department of Justice defines Cyberstalking as “the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person. Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person’s home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person’s property.”
Cyber-stalkers frequently follow their targets around the net, frequenting chat rooms, message boards, newsgroups or mailing lists in which the target participates. At times they will also attempt to form relationships with those who are friendly with the target in order to get more information about the target. Laws against this behavior vary depending on the country, and victims should report their case to local authorities. To prevent crimes from occurring, it is important for everyone to protect their identity while on the Internet.
CYBER HARASSMENT AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA
Technology has certainly helped perpetrators due to a greater reach, anonymity and a larger victim base. Crime now had a new face in the shape of: easier access to pornography; cyber stalking; cyber harassment; identity theft; morphing; cyber defamation; cyber bullying and email spoofing. The perpetrators of cyber crime also include children, who find a way of taking revenge, and getting back at teachers, classmates or friends.
The IT Act, especially Sections 66 and 67, covers a range of inter-related offences: communicating “offensive or menacing” messages or false information with the potential to cause “annoyance/ inconvenience/ obstruction/ injury/ enmity/ ill will” and so on; violation of privacy; and publishing or transmitting “lascivious” or “obscene” material. While these provisions can provide legal recourse for a woman who faces harassment in the cyber world, the sections are also prone to misuse.
INTERNATIONAL LAWS ON CYBER HARASSMENT
In many countries, there is no specific anti-stalking law, but laws exist that are relevant to preventing or policing stalking, or there have been discussions in the media or government about the need for specific anti-stalking legislation. Where we are aware of specific articles or reports discussing these issues, they have been included in the list below as references for professionals or victims in those countries.
In the case of on-line harassment, there are the difficulties of tracing the cyber-stalker who remains anonymous and problems of dealing with harassment that crosses national boundaries. The borderless nature of the Internet also means that actions by individual governments and international organisations can have a profound effect on the rights of the law-abiding Internet users, or “netizens”, around the world. Legal regulation of the Internet should not be achieved at the significant expense of fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and privacy of on-line users around the globe.
SUGGESTIONS & CONCLUSIONS
We need to actively engage women and civil society organisations on these other issues, such as emotional abuse, cyber-stalking and identity theft. The anonymity of the internet provides protection from identification and retribution and makes it easier to mount a campaign of abuse against someone, even from the other side of the world. The internet can be both a tool for empowering and for terrorising women. They need to be given the tools to help reinforce the former and prevent the latter.
People who feel they have been victimized should begin to document and collect all harassing messages, postings and other activities. If there is any indication that a perpetrator knows where the victim lives or works or how to find him or her offline, the victim should contact the local authorities immediately. In some instances, the authorities can track the harasser through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and issue a restraining order against the individual. Victims who cannot file criminal charges against an offender might attempt to file a civil suit, have accounts revoked and have damaging websites shut down.
The beneficial uses of the Internet far outweigh its abuses and the few problems created by the use of the Internet by a small proportion of the Internet community should be dealt with through self-regulatory solutions at both private and public levels together with the improvement of good practices for Internet usage.
Computer crime is a multi-billion dollar problem. Law enforcement must seek ways to keep the drawbacks from overshadowing the great promise of the computer age. Cybercrime is a menace that has to be tackled effectively not only by the official but also by the users by co-operating with the law. The founding fathers of internet wanted it to be a boon to the whole world and it is upon us to keep this tool of modernization as a boon and not make it a bane to the society.