Adolescents in the world of cyber crime

Even though the dominant narrative for Indian teens is focused on competitive exams and board results, different stories often slip through in news reports about rebellion, drug abuse and sexual crimes. According to National Crime Records Bureau's 2014 report, juveniles (under 18) were around 6 per cent of the total arrested for cyber crimes. However, for the age group of 18 – 30, who are 44.4 per cent of the total convicted, we do not have a break down for teenagers. In absolute numbers, there are not many, but as a percentage, teens are not an insignificant part of the cyber crime map. And this percentage is only as perpetrators.

Young Digital Citizen Kanes: Growing up with technology, teens tend to live online, where they share information about their parents, relationships, friends, achievements etc. They have an intense need to connect with others and explore their personality. The relative anonymity of the Internet gives cushion to the awkwardness of adolescence as well. Moreover, peer pressure to conform often motivates a certain online behaviour for teenagers. But little do they know that their reckless exposure of life on cyberspace can push them into a blackhole.

The Big Bad World: The American reality television series To Catch a Predator worked to arrest sexual offenders who lured teenagers, online, by catfishing. In catfishing, a stranger assumes a false identity and lures another person to give out personal information or build a relationship. With the demise of chat rooms, a lot of the catfishing menace is controlled, but a significant portion may exist in the app-based chats and social networking sites.

Hell Has No Fury like a Lover Scorned: There is a disturbing rise of revenge pornography, which involves a scorned lover publishing compromising photos/videos of their ex-lover online, as an act of vengeance. There are websites on the Internet meant specifically for publishing such content. With the advent of multimedia chat messengers, there is a greater opportunity to exchange intimate photos and videos without. Though these pictures are personal and meant to stay between the two parties involved, a vengeful ex-partner might threaten to publish the photos online. Some teens are therefore bullied and blackmailed, which often leads to depression and suicide.

Rise of the Anonymous Bully: Anonymity ensured on the Internet enables cyber bullying in many forms. Apart from trolling from anonymous accounts, cyber bullying can involve spreading rumours, threatening or passing lewd remarks to intimidate the other person. Given the increasingly visual culture, body shaming is also on the rise. In an emotionally vulnerable age, cyber bullying can have a devastating impact. In this case, the harasser and the harassed both can be teenagers.

Teenagers are in a unique cusp – they understand technology really well, but they are often unaware of the pitfalls. Parents can wait for them to learn from their mistakes. But sometimes, they pay a really high price. Hence, a sustainable strategy is to talk about the tenets of digital citizenship with teenagers as they start their life in what the French cultural theorist, Guy Debord, called the society of the spectacle.

(The author is Research Head, Zee Learn, Ltd.)