Cybercrimes Against Women in India : Laws, Challenges & Safety Tips

Cybercrimes Against Women in India : Laws, Challenges & Safety Tips

Citizens are becoming more empowered and experiencing a change in their lives as a result of the expansion of the internet and the products, services, and applications available on it. Cybercrime is, however, also on the rise as a result of the expansion of the internet.

Information Technology solutions have paved a way to a new world of internet, business networking and e-banking, budding as a solution to reduce costs, change the sophisticated economic affairs to easier, speedy, efficient, and time saving method of transactions. Various criminals like hackers, crackers have also found ways and measures to interfere with the internet accounts and have been successful in gaining unauthorized access to the user's computer system and stolen useful data. Cyberspace is the complex environment resulting from the interaction of people, software and services on the internet by means of technology devices and networks connected to it, which does not exist in any physical form. Cyberspace is vulnerable to a wide variety of incidents, whether intentional or accidental, manmade or natural, and the data exchanged in the cyberspace can be exploited for nefarious purposes by both nation-states and non-state actors. The protection of information infrastructure and preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information in cyberspace is the essence of secure cyber space .

Cyber Crime Meaning

1. Cybercrime can be defined as unlawful activities conducted through the internet and digital devices intending to creep into the private space of others and disturb them with objectionable content and misbehavior.

2. Internet surfing has become a regular practice for educational, social, entertainment, or professional purposes in today's digital world. Women have been working or learning using online platforms and frequently accessing social media platforms.

3. While most people are engaged on the internet and other digital platforms for various educational and recreational purposes, many miscreants use these digital tools to abuse and bully online users, especially women. This type of criminal activity is called Cybercrime, as it involves using cyberspace.

Cyber Crime Against Women

1. Cyber violence uses Computer Technology to access women's personal information and use the internet for harassment and exploitation. Women are becoming soft targets as they often trust other people and are unaware of the consequences.

2.Cybercrime has increased because it is seldom reported and difficult to detect and prove. Cyber crime is away from traditional monitoring, investigation, or audit and requires specialists to understand the nature of the crime.

3. Cybercrime affects women the most by subjecting them to mental and emotional harassment. Most women become distressed, humiliated, and depressed under this type of crime which is challenging to address and resolve.

Cyber Crime Types

Cybercrime against women includes gender-based and sexual remarks and activities performed through a computer network or mobile phones, affecting the dignity of women and causing emotional distress.

The different types of cybercrime against women are explained as follows:

1. Cyber Stalking: It includes attempting to contact women via social networking sites. without any legitimate purpose, putting threatening messages on the chat page, and constantly disturbing the victims with objectionable emails and messages to create mental distress.

2. Cyber Defamation: This activity involves defaming the victim through blackmailing and disclosing their details or modified pictures. It often involves extorting and seeking sexual favors from the victim.

3. Cyber Hacking: When asked to click on unauthorized URLs or download apps that leak all their personal information on their phones, the women became victims of cyber hacking. The criminals utilize these details for unauthorized monetary transactions and other unlawful activities.

4. Cyber Bullying: It is an act of regular harassment and bullying of the victim through the digital communication device by posting abusive and misleading content, pictures, or videos and sending rape and death threats.

5. Pornography: This criminal activity involves posting morphed images of victims and using them for pornographic purposes, sometimes demanding money to remove them from social networking sites.

6. Cyber Grooming: In this case, a person builds a relationship with a woman through an online platform and pressurizes her for undue favors or doing sexual acts.

How to Tackle Cyber Crime

1.The most important part is to have a thorough knowledge and awareness about privacy and cybercrimes to avoid people being vulnerable to such threats. There must be more education on cybercrimes and online fraud and how to get rid of or handle them. Cyber literacy should start from the basic level with adequate knowledge about good operating practices.

2.It is necessary to remain extra vigilant about cyber privacy and security. Proper awareness and education can help teach good habits and techniques while working online with digital devices. There has been an increasing trend in cybercrime against women involving blackmailing, fake profiles, morphed images, and publishing or transmitting sexually explicit messages online..

Measures for Cyber Safety

These are some of the measures that can be taken to protect oneself from cyber crimes:

-Keep a watch on irrelevant or fraudulent messages or emails.

-Avoid responding to emails asking for personal information.

-Avoid accessing fraudulent websites or apps that require personal information,

-Take care of the email address and password.

-Use strong and secure passwords and keep on changing them regularly.

-Don't click on unrecognized UPL or download unknown apps.

-Remain updated about cyber laws and policies.

Cyber Laws for Women's Safety

All users of cyberspace are subject to specific laws applicable worldwide. Cyber laws deal with legal issues arising from networked computer technology and digital platforms. These laws protect the victims against cyber crimes and help them address the issues and get justice.

The following acts under the Indian Penal Code (IPC, 1860) section 354 or Section 75 , 77 ,78 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS, 2023) mention the following crimes as punishable under the law.

➤Section 354A or : Demand for sexual favors or displaying objectionable pictures against a woman's consent or making sexual remarks and sexual harassment will cause imprisonment of up to 3 years with fines.

➤ Section 354C: An act of photographing or publishing a picture of a woman engaged in a private act without her consent will lead to imprisonment of 3 to 7 years and shall also liable to fine .

➤Section 354D: Contacting a woman online and sending irrelevant emails/messages despite the woman's evident disinterest will cause imprisonment of 3- 5 years with fines.

The Information Technology Act of 2000 also has provisions for punishment under the following sections:

➤ Section 66C-Identify cyber hacking is a punishable offense with imprisonment of 3 years and fines of Rs. 1 lakh.

➤Section 66E-Deals with the offense of capturing, publishing, or sending pictures of women in circumstances that violate privacy. This causes imprisonment of 3 years.

➤ Section 67A-Makes it illegal to publish and transmit sexually explicit content and is punishable with imprisonment of up to 5 to 7 years.

The Cyber Crime Prevention Act of 2012 focuses on preventing and prosecuting offenders involved in cybercrimes like violating privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of information through computer-related criminal activities.

The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act regulates and prohibits the indecent representation of women through the media and publications, which also includes the audio-visual media, the content in electronic form, and distribution of material on the Internet and the portrayal of women over the web.

Cyber-Security and Government of India.

1.The Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme is introduced to develop effective measures to handle cyber-crimes against women and children in India. It allows a cybercrime victim to file a complaint through an online cybercrime reporting platform. The platform also provides details of law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the local and national levels. The CCPWC also conducts awareness programs starting from the school level as a proactive measure to mitigate cybercrimes.

2.To enable the public to report occurrences pertaining to all sorts of cybercrimes, with a focus on cybercrimes against women and children, the government has developed the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in).

3.To offer a framework and ecosystem for LEAs to deal with cybercrimes in a thorough and coordinated manner, the government established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (14C).

National Commission for Women

The recommendation of National Commission for Women for preventing Cyber Crime against Women:

➤ Online Women specific Crime Reporting Unit Interlink with NCW should be made in such a manner that if a woman wants to make a complaint about cybercrime to NCW, it should be sent to MHA Crime Reporting Unit with acknowledgement to NCW and a copy to the complainant. It will encourage quick disposal of the complaints that too with the assistance of the IT professionals

➤ Monitoring Unit for Cyber Crimes-Monitoring unit should provide monthly reports on the complaints received through NCW

➤ National Forensic Laboratory-Investigations of crime against women are delayed due to pending reports from forensic laboratories so NCW agreed to it.

➤Capacity Building-It should include capacity building of protection officers appointed under Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

Preventing Cyber Crime against Women

1. The most important part is to have a thorough knowledge and awareness about privacy and cybercrimes to avoid people being vulnerable to such threats. There has to be more education on cybercrimes and online fraud and how to get rid of them or handle them.

2. Cyber literacy should start from the basic level with adequate knowledge about good operating practices. It is necessary to remain extra vigilant about cyber privacy and security. Proper awareness and education can help teach good habits and practices while working online with digital devices.

3. There is also a need for stricter law enforcement and punishment for offenders. Media interventions for creating public awareness can make an effective contribution in bringing about changes in the attitudes of people towards gender norms.

Conclusion:
In an increasingly technology-dependent world, cyber violence tend to increase, with women becoming the soft targets. The legislation must go the extra mile to punish such criminals with strict actions. To prevent cybercrime against women, greater awareness and knowledge about cyber practices, privacy protection, and legal security are required. The legal system has approved a variety of legislation to address cybercrime against women. Rulers and lawmakers should continuously strive toward ensuring that technology advances in a healthy way and is used for legal and ethical economic growth rather than criminal activities. Women need to be strongly encouraged to speak up when their rights are violated online. The government must also verify that the programme to prevent cybercrime against women and children is operating effectively. Additionally, the complainant's privacy must be safeguarded. It is ineffective to implement IT legislation provisions to achieve the requirement.