Real or virtual, women need to stay guarded about their personal lives, writes Hema Vijay. We don't leave our printed photographs and personal information lying around in the real world, but when it comes to the online world, we do it out of carelessness or on the erroneous premise that the virtual world will have no consequence on the real one.
But horror stories abound in the cyber world as in the real one, such as this one. A young girl had received a 'friend' request from her brother's friend, which she had refused. He then bombarded her with friend requests through 200 odd phony identities he had created, subtly revealing his identity by the variations of the name he used in them; he wanted the girl to know that the requests were from him.
One can imagine the panic the girl went through. And imagine, if she had 'friended' him, he would have had access to all the information she had posted about her. However, this incident represents only the tip of the iceberg. Today, women often suffer from gender harassment through cyber tools in a variety of ways, like breach of privacy, cyber stalking, defamation through fake profiles, using pictures for wrong reasons, etc.
"Whether you are a private person or a celebrity, you should be able to control the boundaries of your privacy", says Anupama Srinivasan, programme director, Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit organization that has been working on gender violence since 2008. Considering the increasing number of cyber sexual harassment, Prajnya has started a cyber safety initiative in the form of a cyber safety manual.
"You can't tell young women to stay off the internet. But they have to be equipped in staying clear of the dangers out there, handling the harassment that might crop up, recognizing warning signs, and in practising basic cyber safety precautions", Anupama points out.
Where in cyber space are you?
This is a potent question, and more often than not, the answer tends to be - 'I really don't know'. For instance, it is perfectly fine for a friend to post a photo of you at his birthday party on his Facebook page. "But remember, you do not get to control his Facebook settings - whether his page is open for stray strangers or just to a group both of you are acquainted with", Anupama points out, adding, "Youngsters also tend to 'friend' everyone who puts in a friend request. It is about conceding to peer pressure, in being able to say, 'I have a hundred friends'".
Prajnya's five-step manual could be a place to begin your cyber-safety training. The exercises mentioned here are simple and effective and could go a long way in furthering your cyber safety. One such step mentioned in the manual is about simply 'googling' yourself in a systematic way to find out what exists on us in cyber space.
"If you locate personal information like address, phone numbers or pictures or information you don't want to be out there, speak to the people involved and get it deleted; Write to the website that lists your phone number without your permission and get it removed. Use your full name and/or the name you go by generally, to google yourself, and be sure to add 'plus photographs' in your google search", Anupama suggests.
We need to repeat this search every few months. There are other basic instructions to adhere to. Such as making sure that we sign out of all email/social media accounts rather than simply closing the page, and to never give personal details to any website unless we are 200% sure of its trustworthiness.
Email accounts, Facebook, Twitter… our virtual life looms larger than real life at times and we interact with so many in the online universe, including those we have never met or have certainty about their true identity and character, and some we think to be friends, but might not really be. And sometimes, we get very impulsive on virtual space and speak of things we wouldn't have voiced in a face-to-face conversation, which might leave us in a vulnerable spot at a later time in life.
Just like we teach youngsters stepping out into the world about the dangers that lie there, we have to teach our young women to stay guarded in cyber space too. Because even in the virtual world, it is better to be safe than sorry.
To access the cyber safety manual, log on to www.prajnya.in/16d12wicsay.pdf or www.prajnya.in/16d12wicsay.htm
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Being safe online
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