CYBER CRIME: THE UNEQUIVOCAL LEVERAGE TO THE CHILDREN

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to
begin with the children.”
Words of Mahatma Gandhi have its relevance even today, a war is still continuing for the protection of
children. The war for the basic needs of the children is continuing and another aspect also gets added to it that is
protection of child from cyber crime. The proliferation in Internet use lately has resulted into a new stream of
crimes which severely exploits the child & that can be termed as Cybercrime. Simply speaking, the computer-
oriented crimes can be said as Cybercrime but there is no as such full -fledged definition of Cyber Crimes
because they are an amalgamation of various categories. Broadly speaking, Cybercrimes are stratified into four
strata’s i.e. cyber bullying, pornography, identity theft and child trafficking which leads to child sexual abuse.
The Cyberspace provides ground for the children to be harassed, enticed, and groomed for commercial and
financial gains. This cyber extremism is a globally increasing menaces which actively as well as passively
harming every aspect, social, political, economic of the country. The Child sexual abuse is defined as the sexual
activity between a child and the other person or exposing him/her to the inappropriate online content or to the
online sexual solicitation. The Cyber annoyance has now become a new type of harassment that can be racial,
sexual or religious takes place in the cyberspace and gives rise to criminal offences. From a different
perspective, the cybercrimes are increasingly becoming a grave concern for the privacy of the citizens. The
Traditional Indian view of welfare was based on dakshina, ahimsa, daya etc. Earlier well-being of children was
dependent on these ethical values. But during the twentieth century we have come across the concept of child
rights. Various national and international legislations protect the children from various abuses. The Protection
of Children from sexual offences, 2012 defines the child as “any person below eighteen years of age”. In this
far-fetched modernized world, technological innovations have dramatic effects in our lives as well as on
society. One of these innovations is Internet which has revolutionized and enhanced every single aspect of life
including education, recreation, and commerce. Recent rapid advances in technology has allowed all especially
the adults and children to make use of unprecedented opportunities to socialize through social networking sites,
peer to peer (P2P) websites but at the same time, the proliferation of this computer technology has ended up in
Cyber Crimes. Cyberspace has lately emerged in our country that eventually leads to the multi emerging
challenges evolving from it. Children have always been subjected to victimisation because of their credulous
nature. Violence against children is a ubiquitous occurrence that knows no social, cultural, economic, nor
technological boundaries. The sheer number of youngsters using internet across the world makes our concern
well-founded. Predators contact teenagers and victimize them by:

1. Enticing them for the purpose of engaging into sexual acts. Using internet to distribute, manufacture
child pornography for commercial gains and personal gratification. These crimes affect various sections
and groups which to a great extend have an influence on our lives.
 2. Internet victimisation and the ever-increasing harassment has led to severe moral crisis and degradation
of ethical aspects in our lives. These crimes can have severe implications on the children’s mental and
emotional health.
3. Bullying by the use of electronic means. It also referred to as online bullying. It can be identified by the
repeated behaviour or the intent to harm, children being delegate have a grave response to it
4. Identity Theft means the fraudulent act/ practice of using personal information including name and other
details of another person to obtain loans, credits etc.
5. Sexting is the act to send on sexually obscene explicit pictures, emails, videos, text messages digitally
usually by cell phones.

UsersAge Distribution in %

120

100 6 3
8 7
9
11
80 17
19
21 50 + YRS
40 - 49 YRS
60
37 30 - 39 YRS
35 20 - 29 YRS
40 33 16 - 19 YRS
12 - 15 YRS
18 21
20 14
14 12 15
0
All India Urban Rural

In today’s increasingly connected world, every age group is interconnected somehow to the internet and as a
result of this the cybercrime rate has also picked up the gear. Here are some statistics which will give us the
insight to the usage of internet. According to the data by IAMAI in its report of 2019, the number of teenage
internet users all India is 32%, in rural area is 36% & in urban area it is 26% in the age group of 12-19 years. It
means one third of the internet users are teenagers or could say children.

Frequency of using Internet (All India frequency of usage in %)

 Frequency of Internet users
13
Everyday (65%)
7
4-6 days a week (4 %)
1-3 days a week ( 11%)
11 Once a week ( 7%)
Less often than once a week
4 65 ( 13%)

According to this data of IAMAI 2019 data it is clearly visible that 65% of the population of India is using
Internet everyday and if we combine both of these data of graph 1 and 2 it is quite unequivocal that 1/3 of
India’s population which is children are under the constant threat of being attacked by a cyber crime.

Percentage of rise in cyber crime

90
80 76.9
69
70
60
50 percentage of rise in cyber crime

40
30
20.5
20
10 6.3
0
2014 2015 2016 2017

India recorded 9,622, 11,592 and 12,317 cases of cybercrime in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. Cybercrimes
in India almost doubled in 2017, according to statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB). The data comes in the backdrop of India aspiring to become a five trillion dollar digital economy.
Cybercrime cases recorded in 2017 are 21,796 cases 1. The growth rate of cyber crime in 2015 and 2016 had
gone down before the sharp increase in 2017. In 2014, as compared to 2013 cyber crime grown up by 69%, in
2015 and 2016 growth rate was 20.5% and 6% respectively. In 2017 it recorded a growth of 76%, which is a
serious concern; data of 2017 has after 2 years of gap in 2019. Centre has blamed the state governments for not
providing the data.

1
Utpal Bhaskar, Cyber-crime cases in India almost doubled in 2017 ( Feb. 02, 2020, 10:04 AM )
https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/cyber-crime-cases-in-india-almost-doubled-in-2017-11571735243602.html
According to National Commission for Protection of Child Right (NCPCR) and right groups tracking cyber
crimes against children, nearly 14 crore children have access to mobile phones in India and the number is
growing at a very fast pace. Even tough there is no separate mention of cyber crime against children in the data,
law enforcement agencies agree that such instances are on the rise across all sections of the society.2

A joint study by ASSOCHAM-NEC has revealed that India from the year 2011-2016 has witnessed 457%
increase in cybercrime incidents under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. Symantec Corp ranked
India among top five countries which severely affected by cybercrime, between 2012-2017. From here, we can
measure the degree of loss which is inflicted on our country and its citizens.

REASONS OF INCREASE IN GROWTH RATE OF CYBER CRIME

Before finding measures to curb cyber crime, there is need of analysing various reasons for such grave nature of
growth in these crimes:

 Negligence among Internet users: As in the age of internet every data is being saved on internet because
of convenience of accessing it any place, makes it easy for the cyber attacker to get all the personal
information very easily and also if they contact with strangers under any influence they may share their
data and being a child they are not well aware of how their data could be misused.
 Social media: One of the most grave threat to children, as in the age of socialising children come on the
social networking sites and these sites because of their such nature have a lot of strangers and make
children come closer to threat from these stranger on the internet even being in there homes.
 Lack of attention of parents: Today, with a busy schedule both mother and father are not able to
connect, and make a bond of trust with their children and children being sometimes in situation of being
less faith in his parents don’t tell the wrong happening with them.
 Concept of privacy of child: In the age of privacy to everyone children could not be left behind, they
also want privacy even if parents want to check they couldn’t do so which is also an helper to cyber
crime against child.

MEASURES TO SOLVE
Having the largest youth population in the world and being the second largest number of people using internet,
it becomes indispensable to make it a national priority. Government needs to take a dire action. Now,
elimination of the Internet usage is not possible but we can act on some suggested measures to prevent and cure
this disease. These are:
 Nationwide Campaign and Workshops: All educational institutions should be instructed to impart
knowledge about these crimes as it will inculcate in them the safety habits. Nationwide campaigns like
marathons, youth internet safety surveys must be undertaken to raise awareness among parents and
children. In order to realize their full potential, we need to empower the younger generations to assert
2
Vankatesh Ganesh, Jinoy Jose P, Our Kids are not safe online( Jan 31, 2020, 03:23 PM)
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-file/our-kids-are-not-safe-online/article26501956.ece
 their basic rights. Sometimes children even don’t know that crime is taking place against them, if we
educate them they report it.
 Law Enforcement Agencies: Our law enforcement agencies are not well-equipped with the methods to
check and defend the victims. It should be empowered to technical training in technological forensic
investigation. They should be trained in treating the family and child sensitively and compassionately.
The victim should not have the fear of further victimisation from the hands of criminal justice system.
 Speedy disposal of cases: There is great need to have speedy disposal of the cases, it has two effects
firstly, there will be constant threat in the mind of person doing the cyber crime and secondly, the
children’s mind didn’t get hampered also it will have another positive aspect that the parents will be
ready to report cases of cyber crime against children if they see that convicts are getting the
punishment.
 Proper data and timely data: Data regarding crime as well as cyber crime are not timely presented, the
NCRB data of 2017 has come after a delay of two years, which must be presented on time as the
relevance of data got hampered in fast moving world, secondly there is a need of providing separate
data regarding cyber crimes against children, because if government didn’t know the number of crimes
against children, action against these crimes can’t be taken place properly.
 Need for Rehabilitation: A strong stance by the government to keep a regular check on societal crimes
and harassment would facilitate the child victims to reintegrate and socialize in communities and
families once again. In this regard, Partnership with mental health experts and organisation who are
specialized in counselling is the need of the hour.
 Internet World is Anonymous world: The predators look for different ways to exploit the very
purpose/objective of law by finding the weaknesses in law enforcement. For tackling this problem,
coordination with the agencies like VGT, Europol is necessary to join the combat against online sexual
abuse of children. A forum at the south Asia level may be the good choice to start initially.
 Role of Parents: As the first step for the development of a child is family, child should be taught safe
usage of internet by parents. In the world of both of the parents are working, there is a need to spare
sometimes for their children, so that children could open up with them and share everything. A
knowledge-oriented approach should develop among the children in order to strive for a better future.
Guidance to refrain from connecting with anonymous people should be imparted.
 Role of the society: Society is the next influential factor after parents and it makes a great deal of
impact in our lives. These evils can be phased out by the society by the collective efforts with a single
goal. Rather than hyping or further victimize the victim, unfortunate events or isolating the victim,
society with a cooperative mindset should make it a common cause and join forces to combat it. The
participation of society in erasing out the obscene contents from internet which has the profound impact
on children. There is certainly a difference between obscenity and sex education which needs to be
maintained.
 Uplifting of Ethical & Moral Values: One of the main causes is the heavy down gradation of ethical
values among people. Earlier these were considered the true ornaments of people received from
 scriptures, texts, elders etc. Nowadays, heavy breakdown of values can be seen evidently as the crimes
are increasing day by day. There is need of family, parents, society and government as well to uplift the
ethical and moral values and to preach care for each other.
 Some recommendation for IT act: To be very clear about the things is very need for law enforcement,
but this is not the case with Section 67 of Information Technology Act, as it deals with the issue
regarding online child pornography; but the term child does not include adult pretending or seems to be
a child which is need to be cleared.
 Stringent barrier on using adult site: There is a need to put stringent barrier on using adult site by
children, strict identity check must be there, not just by answering that they are adult, proper identity
and age check is required.
 Role of whole globe: As sometimes the person accused of cyber crime are out of the boundaries of a
country and a country sometimes feel helpless to catch that person because of the jurisdiction barriers.
All countries must need to come together to protect the children from these cyber crimes by helping the
other country to punish the accused of such crime.

Author

Name – Sachin

Designation – Student (2nd Year)

Address – University Institute Of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Phone No. – 9466966492

Email Address – [email protected]

Co- Author

Name – Pooja Soni

Designation – Student (2nd Year)

Address – Rajiv Gandhi National University Of Law, Patiala

Phone No. – 8901377969

Email Address – [email protected]