Use of electronic forms of contacts to send obscene messages, mock, harass, stalk, threaten,
hurt or defame an individual, is called cyberbullying. This may also include using your superiority
or influence to force or intimidate someone to do something against his/her wishes. Although it is present among all the age groups, it is more common among teenagers and youngsters who cannot easily defend themselves. Cyberbullying can cause a range of negative emotional responses such as psychological and emotional damage, stress, sleeplessness, anger, depression and trauma which often culminates to suicidal tendencies.
Different types of Cyberbullying
Just as it is with social media, the nature and forms of cyberbullying has an extensive dimension.
Some of these are:
• Posting or spreading hateful and humiliating rumours about someone to malign his/her
image
• Publication or circulation of embarrassing or nude/inappropriate photos and videos. The
District Court of West Bengal in the case of State of West Bengal vs Animesh Boxi referred such acts ‘virtual rape’
• Impersonating someone by creating a fake social media profile or webpage and sharing real or fabricated information about him/her with the intent to humiliate or harass
• Instigating religious, ethnic, or political hate by spreading hateful posts
• Threatening to commit acts of violence
• Stalking someone digitally and sending offensive and abusive messages to scare, harm, or intimidate him/her.
• Deliberately removing someone from a group and posting spiteful comments against him.
Cyberbullying in India
With the prevalent accessibility of social media platforms and data services, India has witnessed a sudden upsurge in the cases of cyberbullying. Although it is present in all the age-groups, teenagers and young adults tend to become the victims of cyberbullying more. Most people who die as a result of cyberbullying are of the age group 8-18 years.
• According to a survey conducted by Microsoft in 2012, India was ranked third across 25 countries in the number of online bullying cases reported.
• A survey conducted by internet security company, McAfee, in 2014, reported that 53 per cent of the Indian youth has experienced cyberbullying at least once.
• More than 80 per cent of the teenagers use mobile phones globally and therefore making it the most common medium for cyber bullying.
• In India, one in every four adolescents have seen a morphed image or video of themselves and more than 50 per cent of these were not reported.
• 37 per cent of Indian parents claim that their child have been bullied online, which is highest in the world, with at least 14 per cent of them saying that bullying occurred on a regular basis.
• Over half of the youngsters don’t tell their parents when bullying happens.
• Four in every five perpetrators escape easily after bullying someone online.
• More than 90 per cent of the teens agreed to have ignored cyberbullying advances at least once.
• According to a data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, between 2017 and 2018, cases of cyberbullying and cyberstalking of women and children increased by 36 per cent. Meanwhile, the conviction rate has fallen by 15 per cent.
Some incidents of cyberbullying
One of the sensational incidents of cyberbullying of the recent years happened in Kerala when an MBBS student died by suicide after she was subjected to humiliating comments on her Facebook posts by one of her collegemates.
Another incident which needs to be mentioned here is of a young student activist of Lady Shri Ram College who was subjected to massive online trolling and threatened with rape after she criticized a certain student wing of a political party for violence.
Following are some of the provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act and Indian Penal
Code (IPC) which deals with cyberbullying and cyberstalking.
Section 66C of IT Act provides that fraudulently stealing the electronic signature or password of an individual, is punishable with imprisonment of either description that may extend to 3 years and a fine up to rupees 1 lakh.
Section 66E of IT Act states that any person who intentionally violates the privacy of an individual by capturing or transmitting or circulating private pictures or videos shall be punished with three years of imprisonment or five years of jail
Section 67B of IT Act deals with punishment for posting or circulating child pornography or any material that seem to depict children in any form of sexual act over the digital media
Section 292A of IPC – Publishing, transmitting, selling or advertising indecent or scandalous matter intended for blackmail
Section 304 of IPC– In case of death of the victim, this provision provides the accused to be charged with culpable homicide
Section 306 of IPC – Abetment of suicide
Section 323 to 326 of IPC – Provisions for causing hurt and grievous hurt and their respective punishments
Section 354C of IPC – Section 354C specifies about the punishment for clicking or transmitting pictures without the permission/knowledge of the victim
Section 354D of IPC – Stalking
• Subsequent to the addition of Section 354D in the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, also known as the Nirbhaya Act, recognized cyberstalking as an offence. This section provides for safeguarding the modesty and interests of women and penalises online stalking even in the absence of ‘digital’ component.
Section 500 of IPC provides that a person if defined guilty to defame another person, has to face imprisonment that may extend to two years, or with fine, or both
Section 506 of IPC provides that a criminal intimidation, which can be defined as threatening a person or his/her loved ones with physical harm, property or reputation, and make the person do something which is not legally acceptable, is punishable with imprisonment of either description, that may extend to two years. If the threat was grievous in the nature, the sentence may extend to imprisonment of either description up to seven years.
Section 507 of IPC provides that if a person tries to criminally intimidate another person by hiding his identity or through anonymous communication, it can result in imprisonment up to 2 years.
Section 509 of IPC penalises for words, gestures or actions that threaten to insult the modesty of a woman.
How to stop cyberbullying?
Following are some tips that can help to safeguard you from cyberbullying and cyberstalking:
• Do not respond – Always avoid responding to bullies. They might seem very friendly at first but with time they can get abusive if you do not behave according to their likes.Blocking any such advancements beforehand, take the power out of the perpetrator’s hands.
Report on the platform – The first thing you can do when someone inappropriately approaches you on social media platforms is to report their account, posts and messages on the very same platform. Almost all the renowned social media platforms have dedicated customer support the team who takes bullying very seriously.
Share – If you are being bullied or harassed online, seek parental help or discuss it with a trusted friend or companion. Keeping your sufferings to yourself only empowers the perpetrator. Parents can also activate parental control software on their children’s devices that prevents access to inappropriate websites and media.
Save the evidence – If you are in the middle of a cyberbullying or cyberstalking incident, save any proof that you can of being the victim. This could mean saving certain posts, texts, comments or even screenshots.
Seek help – When the cyberbully does not relent in his behaviour, the best advice would be to reach out to the Cyber Crime Division of your area. In case, any of your sensitive data has been leaked online by the bully, the department will help you to block and remove that content from web and take immediate action against the perpetrator. Also, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Home Affairs have launched dedicated helpline portals for reporting cyber-crimes against women and
children.
You can visit https://cybercrime.gov.in/ and ask for help.