Cybercrimes and

Women
AJITESH ARYA
 Introduction
 Technological  and internet advancement has helped in the development of
mankind and made the life easy.
 Cybercrimes-The dark side of the internet.
 A Crime involving internet, computer system and computer network.
 Women: An easy and more vulnerable target.
 Rise of 42% was recorded in cybercrimes against women in 2018 from 2016:
NCRB
 India, one of the few countries to have properly drafted IT Act.
 Economic crimes centered and does not have women under consideration.
 Aim: to see if  was are sufficient to deal with substantive offences and
procedural lacunaes (If any.).
Reasons for Cybercrimes against women

 Two main reasons

 a. Sociological Reasons

  b. Legal Reasons 
 Sociological Reasons 
 Social position and gendered relationship
The constructs of gendered roles leads to women having lesser autonomy and
restriction in the technological know-how as compared to other gender. This is further
aggqravted by lack of proper teaching at schools.
 Women and Family pride?
Modesty of women in Indian Society is linked with family pride, making women a
target in familial disputes and underreporting of crimes which further motivates the
Perpetrators.
 Globalization and family disassociation
Talcot Parson empirically proved that industrialozation led to disassociation in the
familial and emotional solidarity. Individuals look for liquid love on social media
making themselves prone to cyberattacks.
 Perpetrator's outlook

 Griffith asserts, “virtual realities and take on other social personas and social
identities makes the perpetrator feel good about themselves. In such cases, the
medium of the internet may provide an alternative reality to the user and allow
them godlike feelings of immersion and anonymity, feelings that may lead to an
altered state of consciousness for the user." The anonymity and godlike feeling
motivate them to commit crimes which they otherwise  would not have
committed.
 On the internet, both parties remain under a veil of personnality annonymity, and
once the veil is removed, shocking revealation may happen, severly damaging the
ego which culminates in revenge crimes.
 Legal Reasons

 It is argued by Debrati Halder (lawyer and activist) that cybercrimes are increasing

due to insufficient laws and data protection regimes 
 The economic centered vision of IT act is also criticized for lacking a
individual human rights approach. 
 Lack of a unified and homogenus code dealing with all type of cybercrimes against
women.
 Delay in complain registeration and 
 The punishments provided under various provisions lack a detremental effect and
inadequate against the offence committed. 
 These claims warrant special study unlike sociological claims. The paper has tried to
see if laws are sufficient to deal with major crimes against women and some
procedural launae.
 Cybercrimes and Laws

 To study the effectiveness of the laws, it is helpful to analyze the major

substantive offences against the women.

 Although I have focused on crimes focused on women, it is nowhere suggested

that they are not subjected to economic crimes.
 Cyberstalking
 The repetitive approaches made by offender resulting in unpleasant feelings and
intimidation to a women.
 Constitutes 49% of total cybercrimes against women : NCRB.
 Case law: Ritu Kohli's case, 2001, 1st cyberstalking case.
 Manish Kathuria was stalking an Indian lady, Ms. Ritu Kohli by illegally chatting
on the web site, www.mirc.com using her name; and used obscene and obnoxious
language, and distributed her residence telephone number, invited people to chat
with her on the phone. Convicted under section 509 IPC.
 Nirbhaya case led to certain hard realization and sec 354 was amended to include
stalking under section 354D.
 contd. 
 354D Any man who, 
1. Follows a woman and contacts or attempts to contact such woman to foster personal
interaction repeatedly despite a clear indications of disinterest by such woman; or 2. monitors
the use by woman of internet, email or any other for of e-communication commits the offence
of stalking”
 Other important provisions that can be employed  include POSH act and Sec 12 of POCSO
(Punishment for sexual harassment against children, depending upon the circumstances.
 Contentions: bailable offence with minimal punishment, threatens the victims, no inclusion
of civil remedy of restrain orders. 
 Narrow understanding under section includes only men, no gender neutral definition.
 Pooja Bedi's case: she was booked under POCSO for harassing the classmate of her
daughter over a mere school fight. 
 The case highlights the need of changing the narrow understanding by showing women
can also be a threat, Afterall, POCSO can't always come to the rescue.
 Voyeurism

 Offence of Voyeurism is basically the violation of Privacy of the women.

 IPC section 354C defines voyeurism as "Any man who watches, or captures the
image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would
usually have the expectation of not being observed either by the perpetrator or by
any other person at the behest of the perpetrator or disseminates such image 1
 shall commit offence of voyeurism" and provides for a penalty of 3 years.
 Section 67A, is also applicable (creation/dissemination of sexually explicit
content). Section 12 of POCSO can also be invoked in special circumstances.
 Contd.

 Case law: R v. Jarvis

 Canadian Court gave a wider understanding to the concept in the landmark ruling.
Mr. Jarvis used to shot pictures of the girls in the classes through his pen. Court
held that he had committed the offence of Voyeurism by violating reasonable
expectation of privacy of his students. 
 Here also, the there is a need to rise above the archaic understanding of
men endangering women, and to make gender neutral laws. The nature of offence
committed by Mr. Jarvis is not specific to  men only.
 Act of Voyeurism damages the reputation severely, and the stigma never ends,
the bailable offence for imprisonment of 3 years does not adequately address
the damages. Uniform Compensation schems should be considered.
 Revenge Pornography 
 Revenge Pornography is the close cousin of voyeurism. Here the content although not
collected clandestinely but disseminated without the consent of the victim.
 In India, dating and public displaying of affection is considered a taboo. Teenagers
uses social media to stay away from scrutiny. They share sexually
implicit/explicit content over internet to impress other parties. Adults are also not
untouched from these practices. It is prevalent among couples to  capture intimate
moments.
 Section 67 A (Creation and dissemination of sexually explicit content ), 66 E privacy
breach and 354C  are primarily used against revenge pornography. 
 Section 67B (use of children in sexually explicit content ), of IT act, section 12 of
POCSO are also applicable.
 Women victims are sometimes turned down in the stations due to faulty interpretation
of 67 A penalizing the willful creator of the content as well. Ignoring the explanation
2 of 354C. The women are blamed for willfully creating the obscene material.
 Contd.
 354C
Explanation (2) Where the victim consents to the capture of the images or any act, but not
to their dissemination to third persons and where such image or act is disseminated, such
dissemination shall be considered an offence under this section.
 State of West Bengal Prosecution VS Animesh Boxi
Animesh Baxi coaxed his partner send him compromising pictures, with a promise of
marriage, and also shot intimate videos. Later on the same were uploaded on a website.
The courts understood the act of Revenge pornography as virtual rape. Accused was
charged under 66E, 67A, 354C and sent to prison for 5 yrs. This was the first case which
had provided for such high punishment.
 Avnish Bajaj vs. State 
This was the first case where the owner was charged with section 67 of the IT act for
knowingly purchasing and buying clandestinely shot MMS. The arrest was made in the
notorious "DPS MMS Scandal" that had shook the nation.
 Contd.

 Some theorists are trying to expand the scope of hacking to include dissemination
of revenge porn.
 Mr. Walls has defined hacking, “unilateral use of computer systems including
networks with intention to breach security of either of the owner or owners."
 As the use of network between a couple was meant for data sharing between two
parties at the exclusion of third party. The dissemination of the data to third
parties may constitute as unilateral use of network.
 Such interpretation may help in bringing offence under section 43 of IT act
(unauthorized use of system and network) making the compensation easier for the
victim.
 Identity theft

 A false image of the victim which is created by the perpetrator through technology

with or without the image of the victim, circulating false or partially true
information about the victim leading to creation of false identity of the victim’s
personality among the right thinking members of society : Debrati Halder
 People are glued to social media, making identity thefts as one of the most
common crime. Yet it is often trivialized by victims and authorities as well. Cases
go underreported. 
 Constitutes only 9% of total cybercrimes against women.
 Section 66C, of IT Act, provides for imprisonment of 3 years for the one
who fraudulently uses pictures, videos and e-signature of another.
 Case law: Ophelia v. Marcus.
 Contd. 

 Held: creating a false image of the person in the public also means creating a false
identity of the person circulating fake information about a person. 
 The verdict of "ophelia case" is not applicable under Indian IT act. As speech
enjoys Article 19 protection but such case be brought under section 509 IPC
(Outraging the modesty of women).
 Contentions: The compensations under the IT act gets arbitrary, identity theft may
result in a mere loss of pennies or loss of job, business and reputation, the token
of one lac appears arbitrary.
 Offence is bailable, and compoundable under section 77 of IT act, greatly
compromising on detrimental aspect.
 Grooming
 Grooming : to maintain and prepare (Merriam Webster). 
 In criminal law the meaning of grooming changes-
"grooming is establishing trust based relationship between victim  and an offender to
solicit for sexual purposes or otherwise. The component of the repetition, misuse of
trust and relationship are important elements."
 Grooming can be used by the offender's to create an entire network of cyber abuse
and violation. 
 Traditional understanding dictates only children are prone to the offence
of grooming. 
 Section 67B(c) of the IT act protects children from grooming 
 Contd.

 " 67B(c) A Person who cultivates, entices or induces children to online relationship

with one or more children for and on sexually explicit act or in a manner that may
offend a reasonable adult on the computer resource shall be punished on first
conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five
years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or
subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees:
 But In the age of cyber advancement, technologically and emotionally vulnerable
adults may also be the target.
 So far there has been no law to deal with cyber grooming among the adults, and we
are yet to see a case dealing  with  the issue.
Procedural concerns
 Complaint mechanism

 Majorly, IT act, IPC and POCSO are employed to deal with the cybercrimes
against women.
 The redressal and complaint method in them varies. 
 Section 80 of IT act requires complaint under the act be recorded by no officer
below the rank of inspector.
 Section 154 of CrPC requires a women officer to be present while registering
complain under IPC 354. 
 This difference in redressal causes unnecessary delay in transfers of complaints etc.
 Although,  in major cities and towns, the police HQ have a Cyber cell but in reality
when someone goes to register complain there, they are directed to approach the
police stations.
 Right to be forgotten

 The Right to be forgotten is a EU law concept, allowing the subjects to ask the
search engines to delist certain search results.
 Online data are mobile and transcends borders, making it difficult for the victims
to get the data removed from the host. As Citron has also shown that “certain
types of cybercrimes including online harassments such as cyber trolling,
bullying, creation of fake avatar are not recognized in foreign jurisdictions,
thereby ISP may be reluctant to take a call”
 In Sri Vasunathan v. The Registrar the Karnataka High Court recognized the right
to forgotten, but absence of proper statutes cause unnecessary delay leaving scars
on reputation of victims and their family
 Evidence Collection

 The evidence collected during the investigation of the cybercrimes are delicate
and include, computer systems, hard drives, discs etc.
 Due to lack of technical knowledge, there has been many instances reported of
evidence being tempered, or chain of custody being lost.
 CBI came up with the general guidance on dealing with the computer evidence
and suggested need of cyber experts in collection of evidence.
 No strict adherence to the guidelines and experts are not sufficiently available at
the stations.
 Conclusion

 Across the provisions of the law, it is seen that the law is developed to deal with
major crimes against the women. But still there is a big scope for the
improvement.
 Procedural concerns are yet to be addressed, a data protection regime is
indispensable. Till then the police should be trained for collecting evidence.
 The laws are scattered throughout various statutes, a homogenization of the laws
is preferable.
 To exhibit legal changes, social change is a must.
 Students should be trained and sensitized towards the healthy use of the internet
and their rights and liabilities on internet. So should be the parents to adopt an
empathetic approach to children.
 Contd.

 Internet is transcending boundaries and has become a need of the

modern world, we need to ensure that privacy breach and
cybercrimes do not inhibit the use of the same. Bodies like NALSA,
DLSA etc can play a key role in spreading awareness.
Thank you