Saturday, February 18, 2012

Social Networking ~ Time to think




We can see lot of news items related to cyber crime in newspapers daily..Even in popular TV channels we can find programs exposing cyber crime.'Should the social networks be censored?' - this debate is going on in media.A case related to this is pending in the court and arguments are going on.But the govt is more interested in censoring political updates in social networking sites such as facebook,orkut,twitter etc., rather than containing pornography and other cyber crimes.When our ministers themselves are more interested in watching porn inside the assembly,there is no point in expecting any govt to take steps against it.

A Social Networking site like facebook or twitter is a real boon for us.There are lot of advantages with these sites.We can use these sites effectively.Nowadays many people are using facebook and twitter.We have the option of sharing photos,links,videos etc.We can also share some beautiful quotes.Not many knew the birth anniversaries(or date of births) of Mahakavi Bharathiyar or Swami Vivekananda.So if we share Bharathi's pic on Dec 11th and Vivekananda's pic on Jan 12th, with a caption stating that, its their birth anniversary, many people will know this information. There are lot of updates related to electronic items every now and then. Not everybody will go through the websites or newspapers related to this.But some people do.If they share such information with an attractive caption,people in his friends list will go through it and get to know the information. We can also post our reviews and views about movies,books,songs etc.Likewise, we can use these sites to share some valuable information.

Facebook or any other social network is for fun and making friends.There is no denial.Through facebook/orkut even I was able to find some of my child-hood friends and so many friends added me too.And with some people we might not talk so many things in person.Due to some factors like seniority(the person may be in a senior position in your organization),lack of privacy etc,we may maintain a distance with them.But in social networks these things hardly matters.Again we can make use of these sites and understand them,stay close with people etc.To put it simply,we can stay connected.

We can see guys who update almost all their day to day activities starting from having tea to going to toilet in facebook.And they get mocked to the core by their friends.To this extent it is ok.We can have fun.But the trouble starts when we cross our limits.In the name of having fun,lot of atrocities are happening in facebook and orkut.And it is an open secret that girls are the soft target.Be it orkut or facebook,there are lot of communities encouraging pornography.They share porn videos and images.What's really serious is, most of these images are stolen from girls' profiles.If you fail to lock your album,whoever visits your profile can save your photos and use it as per their wish.They even do some photoshop work and sell it to pornographic sites.

There are people who themselves share such images.And such images gets atleast 150 likes and 300 comments in facebook.In orkut too,such threads and communities gets a great response.Most of the people have migrated to facebook from orkut,but still they maintain their orkut profiles only to check the posts in such communities.These communities share lot of pics like girls smoking,drinking,sitting in a compromising position,giving a mischievous look towards someone etc.How do they get such pics? The worst part is such pics are being through office mails too.Will they forward such mails if the girl is related to them in any way?

When such pics are shared in facebook pages a bunch of guys jump on to like it and comment on it.Most of the comments abuse the girl badly and they justify their abuses stating that it is the mistake of the girl to pose for such a photograph.And they feel proud of abusing these girls.What if someone has captured this pic without their knowledge?Sharing such pics in facebook might affect the girl's future.Will it not? A guy who drinks and does all sorts of non-sense and yet he abuses the girl for being 'culture less'.Doesn't this sound funny?

If am not wrong,as per our law, punishment for cyber crime is as severe as the punishment for drug peddling.One could be imprisoned for life term if he gets caught in cyber crime(according to the amendment passed to the original Information Technology Act). 

Cyber crime police should be easily accessible and the details of the person who files a complaint with cyber crime should be kept secret.This is because mostly girls/ladies happen to be the victims.Its better to keep their details secret.The govt must take steps for this.And anyway these problems can be reported to our nearest police station as well.They will take appropriate action and there are so many instances where the culprit was tracked and punished severely.


Well this is really a sensitive topic to discuss.Not everybody is perfect.But one should see that his/her imperfection doesn't affect others.I was really disappointed to see guys with some good reputation liking and sharing such pics in facebook.If, in future, the girls' life gets spoiled because of this,then everyone who liked and shared this pic are equally responsible for this.We should have atleast some basic ethics and moral values.I believe atleast after reading this blog post,people from good families will not share or like such pics and pages.Instead they will report the page to facebook.

Yes such culprits do exist.So it is better to safeguard ourselves from anti-social elements.How to safeguard ourselves?Well am not going to give too many technical details here.My suggestion is to follow some simple steps. Use common sense. Don't click on spam links like 'facebook T-shirts','facebook iPhone','What are you doing in this video','How Osama was killed','Free recharge' etc.I really don't know how people are so dumb to expect T-Shirts and iPhone from facebook.These are all just spams.If you click these links,there is a great possibility of your profile getting hacked.Don't click any suspicious link like this even if it comes from your best friend.If you have any doubts regarding the links shared,just call the person and confirm it with them.

Most important thing to do is - 'without any hesitation,reject anonymous friend requests'.You are not here to set up a vote bank by adding as many people as possible.Keep only those people in your list whom you know.Its not like you should not add anyone whom you have not seen before,you can add.But make it sure that you know the details of that particular guy/girl whom u r adding.Accept the request only when you are 100% confident that the person will not harm you in anyway.In my opinion,it is better not to share the photos of girls at all.Sharing such photos and tagging them will expose the pic to a wider audience.Which again might cause some trouble.

If you add any pic to your profile,make it sure that it is visible to only those who are in your friend list.You can even set permissions so that some people cannot view the pic.If you want to report any pic/page to facebook,check this link. This link explains how to report pages to facebook.

I am not preaching or advising through this blog post.These are all basic ethics.This might happen to people related to you too.So take this article in right sense and act accordingly. General I don't write such pro-women articles to project myself as a progressive thinker or so,but I felt things are going overboard.That's the reason for this blog update.

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