In the last few days, someone has been making malicious comments on Nafisa’s YouTube channel, assassinating her character. Nafisa doesn’t understand who is doing this and why. She is forced to remove the comments and keep the comment box closed.
But, some of her colleagues have taken screenshots of these before removing the comments. She is being vilified in various ways. They are humiliating and insulting her repeatedly, indicating that she is such a big criminal.
Nafisa has not been going to work for a few days and remains at home in despair. She couldn’t say anything, even though her parents asked her frequently. She is afraid that if anyone at home knows, she will be misunderstood by everyone, making her sick from mental stress.
Another victim is Faiza Rahman, who is studying in a private university. Beautiful Faiza is liked by many boys in the varsity, but she is very much study-oriented, homely and quiet girl.
Some of her classmates create dirty pictures with Faiza’s photograph and spread them on their friends’ mobile phones. Basically, they took revenge after getting no response from Faiza as proposals of love affair were sent to her by communicating in various ways.
Meanwhile, Faiza’s parents came to know about it and stopped her study. They started to search for a bridegroom for her marriage to get rid of this unwanted harassment. Suddenly, Faiza’s life became miserable, although she didn’t know anything or neither her involvement with it. But, the girl became socially disrespectful.
Many women are victims of cyber attacks, like Nafisa and Faiza. Men are also not excluded from it.
Additional Deputy Police Commissioner Syed Nasirullah, in charge of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s cyber-crime unit, said that they are providing support specifically to women in the case of cyber bullying through the “Police Cyber Support for Women” Facebook page.
Since 2016, gender-based case consideration has shown that 70 percent of women have faced cyber bullying, while the number for men has been 30 percent so far.
As per the Cyber Security Act 2023, cyber bullying is not a cognizable offense. If the victim complains to the police, there is a provision to take the accused into police custody, subject to the permission of the court.
However, Syed Nasirullah opined that it’s not possible to control cybercrime only by punishment.
Cybercrime can be reduced by increasing social awareness using various social media alongside mainstream media.
A research report titled “Cyber Crime Tendency in Bangladesh 2023” conducted under the Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation revealed that out of 406 cases of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in two and a half years, 98 were online fraud cases, which is about 24.13 percent of the total cases.
Then, there were 97 (23.89 percent) incidents of online harassment by taking control (hacking) of various media, including Facebook.
Apart from this, there were 78 cases (19.21 percent) of defamatory statements and dissemination of false information online, while 72 cases (17.73 percent) of fraud in mobile phone financial services.
Besides, 61 (about 15.02 percent) cases have been filed for other cybercrimes.
The Police Cyber Support for Women Unit formed in 2020 to provide support to women victims in the cyber world received 34,605 complaints till April 30, 2023, of which 26, 592 were women. Among the complainants, 8,947 victims expressed their reluctance to take legal action.
Kazi Mustafiz, President of Cybercrime Awareness Foundation, said that considering the gender-wise comparative statistics, the percentage of women among the victims of cybercrime is higher (59.73 percent).
But among them, 26.81 percent of men have complained about ID hacking on Facebook and other social media, he added.
Kazi Mustafiz gave the following suggestions to get rid of cybercrime or cyber bullying:
- University students top the list of victims, and that is why more awareness activities could be conducted among them.
- The same password shouldn’t be used repeatedly.
- Many people get into various troubles, including forgetting complex and long passwords. In that case, any phrase of your choice can be used as a password. In addition, two-factor authentication or two levels of security on ID login should be used.
- Social media should be used with utmost caution.
- Everyone should regularly visit social media settings to read privacy features and learn about newly added features.
- Passwords should be changed at least three times a year.
According to experts, it is possible to mitigate cyber bullying by creating social awareness. Both men and women are affected by cyber bullying, which degrades a person socially, psychologically and professionally, and in some cases, the victims have to face long-term problems.
It is hoped that if the common people of the country can be made aware of its horrors, people will gradually become more careful about cyber bullying.
