Cyberbullying: A deleterious effect of advancing Technology

This article was written by Kavya Lagali, a student of GNLU.

Introduction:

Bullying! At one point of time was a word that everyone could apprehend and relate with at least one incident in their life. Back then, it was majorly described as an incident happening only in educational institutions and work places. But this bullying which hitched a ride for itself with the advancing technology and the digitalizing world has now taken the form of cyberbullying, a modern form of bullying that is no more confined within the walls of educational or work institutions.

Cybercrime which is known to the world as a bane of the internet has been taking new shapes with the advancement in technologies. And since it has been growing multi fold in this new world of digitalization and growing technology, it has become a huge threat to the age group of teenagers who are known to easily fall prey to such crimes of the internet. Hence with the world getting digitally advanced, crimes have shifted from physical space to virtual space, and has taken the form of cybercrime. And cyberbullying being one such crime that falls under the arena of cybercrime, it has been broadly defined as an “aggressive behavior of individuals or groups who frequently communicate in messages of aggressive or hostile nature and largely execute it through electronic or social media to inflict harm on the targeted person.”[1]The very fact of internet being easily accessible, it has become all the more easier for people to misuse it for crimes such as to bully a person by sending them messages of threatening extorting and intimidating nature by remaining anonymous. In today’s generation, where the youth and the teenagers spend most of their time using electronic gadgets and social media websites, bullying does not seem to end with their departure from educational life. Because in its modern form, bullying has become much more prevalent than it was before with increasing prominence and convenient access of internet and social media websites.

How Cyberbullying is different from that of Traditional form of bullying?

• Cyberbullying, in contradiction to traditional form of bullying, is easier to commit because it does not require the perpetrator to physically confront the victim. And since this kind of bullying is mostly done by people in anonymity, it makes it difficult for the victim to identify the source of attacks or the offenders and take action against them.
• While victimized under cyberbullying, the person might feel like there is no escape from the harassment, because though a school day or work hours might end in the mid-evening, there is no way for an internet to shut down, implying that the online abuse and harassment is mostly unrelenting, constant, and may even continue for a quite a long time, weeks or even months.
• Since Cyberbullying has the potential to reach out to huge crowds, it has more potential to harm the victims if it goes viral. Whereas traditional bullying stays between the harassing group or individual and the victim. [2]
• Traditional bullying and cyberbullying can both be categorized into direct and indirect types. Under traditional bullying of direct type, the bullying is mostly of physical nature and includes behaviors such as threatening, hitting, shoving and tripping. Whereas the indirect and direct involves spreading rumors and blackmailing. It is believed that female bullies preferably engage in indirect bullying and male bullies prefer engaging themselves in direct type of bullying.
• Under cyberbullying, the indirect kind is flaming which is basically arguments between two individuals involving insults and threats in rude and vulgar language[3].
• Since traditional form of bullying required physical interaction, it was possible for the victims to sort the help of their teachers and parents to stop bullies from harassing. But this is not the case with bullies involved in cyberbullying because they hide behind the cloak of anonymity and make it difficult for parents and teachers to track them down and intervene their act of bullying.[4]

Behavioral and Emotional Changes in an Individual which may act as significant indicators of cyberbullying:

• The person who is being victimized through cyberbullying stays aloof from people and may appear distressed or outraged after using internet on their electronic gadgets like computer and mobile.
• The person starts to feel all nervous and agitated when he receives texts, instant messages or emails on his electronic gadget.
• He tries to avoid discussing his problems with others and acts secretive about his activities on social media websites.
• They find it difficult to mingle with people that they enjoyed spending time with.
• Their mood changes quickly and there is change in their behavioral, sleep and appetite patterns.
• There is a sudden and unusual deterioration in their academic performance.
• They are not confident and always show signs of disinterest and low self-esteem.

Impacts of Cyberbullying

In cases where cyberbullying crosses the line of cruelty, it causes a deeper impact on the victimized individual. The negative effects of cyberbullying on the victim are in a way more terrible in comparison to the traditional bullying. Few of them are:

• Cyberbullying which mainly involves ‘using of internet, cell phone or other devices to send or post text or images with an intention to hurt or embarrass another person’[5] it has been stated that it causes the victims to grieve from emotional and behavioral issues.
• Since such act of bullying can majorly impact on the health of teenagers, it is believed that individuals who have been victims to such crime are under a great risk of facing psychological disorder driving them into depression and push them to the edge of committing suicide.[6]

Laws against cyberbullying in India:

Though India has no legislated laws against the crime of cyberbullying, there are certain provisions which prescribe punitive damages against cyberbullies and one such provision that stipulates this is provided under section 67 of the Information technology Act, 2000 which punishes all persons who offensively transmit obscene sources of information through electronic means and since it is laid down against acts that are on similar lines with cyberbullying, it can be said that it is one of the relevant sections that comes into force in cases of cyberbullying in India.

Besides this the section 507 of Indian Penal Code, 1860, also acts as relevant section against cyberbullying because it also penalizes individuals with an imprisonment of two years for indulging in acts of threatening and criminally intimidating another person through anonymous mode of communication. And also the section of 66 E under the Information technology Act, 2000, prescribes punitive action against individuals indulging in acts violative against privacy of people. It states that any individual who intentionally does acts of transmitting, capturing or publishing private images of others to violate their piracy should be punished with an imprisonment of three years along with fine of Rupees three lakhs. [7]

Measures taken by our government to combat cybercrime:

Prime-minister Narendra Modi had recently announced during his speech on Independence Day that the National Cybersecurity Policy will be revised and an upgraded version of it will be launched sooner this year to keep in check the modern form of cybercrimes and tackle them by taking necessary measures.

In order to protect the citizens from cybercrimes and provide them with a cybersecure nation, these were some of the initiatives taken by our government in the recent years:

• CERT-in: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team

Cert-in was a National Agency developed to deal with the Cybersecurity of the country. It started functioning from the year 2004 with a principle aim to respond to all incidents relating to computer security and report about the glitches and drawbacks faced in the IT and promote better practices relating to its security.

• NCIIPC: National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre

Established under section 70A of the Information Technology Act by the Central Government, this Centre’s principle function was to protect information of the critical sectors from unauthorized access, use, disruption, modification and disclosure etc.

• Cyber Surakshit Bharat

In order to disseminate awareness about crimes happening through internet, the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology initiated this set up so that the government departments are in a position to enhance their capacity and build an IT set up that is cyber resilient.

• Cyber Swacchta Kendra

This initiative was launched by the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology with an aim to notify users about malwares and guide them about techniques to secure their systems to prevent further infections. It basically tried to invent cleaning bots as a software to analyze malware and detect botnet infections.

• Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019

This initiative was recently taken by the Indian Government with an approach to protect the data and personal information of the individuals. Being set up with an aim to protect the data from being processed by private and government authorities, it also sought for establishing an Authority for Data Protection.

Therefore, one thing that becomes clear from all of these steps taken in the form of bills and initiatives is that, a significant step that the authorities need to understand and take is that they need to constantly improve and evolve their technology in order to always stay ahead of the attackers and hacker. It is only then they can successfully tackle the crimes taking place on the internet.

Conclusion:

Since cyberbullying is a modern form of bullying possessing all the potentialities to risk and threaten the life of an individual. It is a high time that our country takes a step towards implementing a law against this crime of deleterious nature. As it has become highly impossible for a hugely populated nation like ours to work with only three relevant provisions to punish the individuals indulging in crime of cyberbullying. It has become a grave difficulty for a second most populated country in the world like ours to completely eradicate the crime of cyberbullying with inadequate amount of laws.

[1] Francesca Ianniello, Cyberbullying a modern form of bullying: let’s talk about this health and social problem.

[2]https://psychcentral.com/blog/cyberbullying-the-psychological-effects-on-teens/

[3] Julia S chibbaro, School counselors and the cyberbully: Interventions and implications.

[4] Hillary Schronce Blackwood, Regulating Student Cyberbullying.

[5] https://www.parentcircle.com/article/cyberbullying-laws-and-policies-in-india/

[6] Evelina Landstedt, Bullying, cyberbullying and mental health in young people.

[7] https://blog.escanav.com/2019/09/cyberbullying-facts-laws-and-prevention-in-india/#:~:text=%20Cyberbullying%20laws%20in%20India%20%201%20Section,The%20section%20states%20that%20any%20person…%20More%20