OPEN THE MINDLOCKS
The recent outing of Bois Locker Room has raised questions about women’s safety online, and about the mindsets of young, urban boys of our country
The Instagram group Bois Locker Room was outed on May 3 and has since, caused immense outrage on the internet. The private messaging group comprised a number of young boys from South Delhi who would share pictures of girls — many underage — on the group, and speak in a derogatory manner about the girls sharing explicit details and even private pictures of the girls. The worst came when a few of the boys issued rape threats to a couple of girls who exposed them and their chat group.
Legally, a suo moto cognizance has been taken by Delhi Commission for Women against these boys, however keeping legalities aside, experts believe that the problem is much deeper and needs more than just stricter laws or implementation of existing ones to do away with such cases. “A lot of factors are responsible for the existence of such behavioural traits in young men — the portrayal of women in media, the social environment that these boys grow up in, and the fact that when you are a teenager, your body develops faster than your brain. Hence, teenagers don’t think their actions through. So, these acts are a result of neurodevelopmental changes, and hormonal changes etc.,” says Advaita Nigudkar, consultant psychologist.
HOW CAN PARENTS HELP?
Sadaf Vidha, therapist and researcher, says that even though, we may have convinced ourselves that we live in a modern society, this incident has shown that we have in fact, just become very good at covering up our sexism instead of getting rid of it altogether. “We need to talk about everyday sexism with our kids, which is not happening. We are equipping our girls to achieve more in their career, but we have still not broken down emotions, femininity and body to boys. We are not talking to our kids about how our bodies can be misused by people.We don’t take accountability as a society that at some level, we are all contributing to rape culture,” says Vidha.
LAW AND ORDER
Anyesh Roy, DCP CyPAD (Cyber Prevention, Awareness and Detection Centre), adds that it is pertinent for youngsters to seek help from parents if they get into something because of peer pressure and realise it is wrong. “Do not think you can get away after indulging in unlawful cyber activity as digital prints are always left behind on the devices used and many other platforms,” warns Roy.
Kavita Mungi, mental health counselor, believes that women need to be made aware of their rights, and everone should be educated about cyber exploitation, sexting, defamation etc. Alternatively, Vidha says we cannot “depend on just punishment and the legal system as a resolution for sexual crimes”.