Police move to protect children from becoming victims of cyber crime

RIGHT CLICK Police stations, cyber crime cell to maintain data on cyber crimes against kids

NEWDELHI: Twenty-two-year-old science graduate, Jagdeep Singh, was arrested last Tuesday for allegedly stalking girls online and sending them obscene messages and their morphed photographs.

A fortnight ago, Rajesh Gambhir, 30, was held for sending morphed pictures to about 100 girls through Facebook messenger and WhatsApp after randomly picking and saving their photographs from their Facebook profiles.

Gambhir and Singh are not the only people who are involved in victimising children on social media. Though the Delhi Police do not maintain any data on cyber crimes against children, senior officers say there has been a surge in complains related to cyber crimes, mostly involving children who are vulnerable to the cyber world.

To sensitize children about their personal safety and risks pertaining to the use of cyber space, the city police have launched a scheme in which school children across Delhi will be educated on cyber and sexual crimes. The scheme named Child Safety Awareness Programme is the brainchild of Delhi police commissioner, Alok Kumar Verma.

Through this initiative, 10 lakh students from 868 government and private schools across Delhi will be trained to safeguard themselves from any possible threat while working online and using social media platforms via mobile phones or computers.

Joint CP Deependra Pathak, spokesperson of Delhi Police, said that the programme has been divided into three parts – cyber safety, general safety and road safety. Special police unit for women and children, cyber crime cell of economic offences wing (EOW), and traffic units have been roped in to nominate police personnel as trainers.

“Children are prone to cyber crimes. But they hardly report such issues to their parents or teachers as they are afraid their freedom to use social media will be banned or curtailed. This creates more trouble from them by their predators. So, it is necessary to educate them on such issues and encourage them to report such crimes,” Pathak said.

Around 500 trainers from these units will organise two-day training camps at each of the 868 schools and impart lessons on each of the three topics. The children would also be shown short films to create awareness.

“This will be followed by an interactive session wherein school children, mostly between Class 4 and Class 12, will be taught about the types of physical and sexual abuses, their signs and symptoms, and the legal provisions to tackle such issues,” a senior police officer said adding the programme will run till January 2017.

While launching the initiative, the police chief emphasized the importance of inculcation of “good habits” at a young age. He said that a habit of obeying traffic rules teaches a person a sense of responsibility, empathy for others and respecting other people’s rights. “Children should be sensitised about cyber security and other crimes too,” said Verma.

Meanwhile, all the police stations across the city and the cyber crime cell have been asked to maintain the data on cyber crimes against children.