The increasing use of digital technology has led to a rise in cyber crimes against women, including online harassment, cyber stalking, identity theft, and misuse of personal information. This paper highlights the major forms of such offences, the legal measures available in India, and the need for stronger awareness, effective law enforcement, and digital safety to protect women’s rights and dignity in cyberspace.
Introduction: The increasing use of the internet and digital technology has made communication faster and more convenient. There are best college for LL.B that had discusses under their law curriculum the concept of cyber crime and women rights as a core subject and conducting doctrinal cum empirical study on the concept and awareness among people. At the same time, it has led to a rise in cyber crimes, especially against women. Offences such as cyber stalking, online harassment, identity theft, cyber bullying, and the misuse of personal photographs have become common. These crimes violate the privacy, dignity, and safety of women. Therefore, effective laws, public awareness, and responsible use of technology are essential to prevent cyber crimes and ensure a safe digital environment for women.
Amongst the various cyber-crimes committed against individuals and society at large, crimes that are specifically targeting women are as follows: –
Cyber-stalking
Cyber stalking in the present context is an act of continues harassing or threatening of victim by the stalker. The main element of stalking is continuity of objectionable behaviour. It can be considered an extension of cyberbullying and in-person stalking. However, it takes the form of text messages, e-mails, social media posts, and other mediums and is often persistent, deliberate, and methodical. Finally as with stalking in traditional sense cyber stalking may end in physical violence. Stalking (sec 78 of BNS) involves pursuit of a victim and is an act of following, viewing, communication with or moving threatening, or menacing toward another person.
Harassment via e-mails.
Harassment through e-mails is not a new notion. It is very alike to harassing through letters. Harassment includes blackmailing, threatening, bullying, and even cheating via email. E-harassments are similar to the letter harassment but creates problem quite often when posted from fake ids.Cyber Bullying
Cyber bullying is “deliberate, intentional and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, laptop, mobile phones or other electronic
devices, by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening in nature. Bullying is defined as a pattern of repeated behaviour by one person toward another with the aim of damaging that person’s reputation or demeaning them due to greater power or a dominant position.
Cyber Pornography
It is a practice to produce, distribute, and communicate pornographic content online. Previously, this law was handled by Section 292 of the IPC (Now in 294 BNS, 2023) which dealt with the crime of obscenity and covered everything that was lewd, catered to voyeuristic inclinations, or meant to denigrate and corrupt individuals.
Morphing
Morphing is editing the original picture by an unauthorized user. When unauthorized user with fake identity downloads victim’s pictures (particularly in case of female) and then uploads or reloads them after editing is known as morphing. This includes altering or altering the real picture by a fake or unauthorised user by creating a fake profile, downloading the victim’s photo from the internet, editing it in a way that compromises the victim’s original identity, and posting it on social networking sites, or by any other method that can damage the victim’s reputation. It is now such a prevalent practise that anyone can use it for amusement or to exact retribution, endangering the modesty of the woman. The most frequent target for amusement purposes is a celebrity. Sections 43 of the IT Act (acts that include unlawful downloading, copying, extracting, destroying, and changing data), as well as Section 66, both address these offences (computer-related offences). Additionally, the accused may face charges under a number of IPC sections, including S. 354A (sec 75 in BNS) for sexual harassment, S. 290 (sec 292 of BNS) for public annoyance, S. 292 (sec 294 of BNS) for obscenity, and S. 501 sec 356(3) at BNS for defamation, BNS Section 79 – Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman. BNS Section 77 – Voyeurism. The law of IT Act Sections 66C, 66D, 67, 67A, and 67B, where also applicable to cyber offences.
Email spoofing.
A spoofed e-mail may be said to be one, which misrepresents its origin. It shows its origin to be different from its actual source. E-mail spoofing is a popular way of scamming online E-mail spoofing is a term used to describe fraudulent email activity in which the sender’s address and other parts of the email header are altered to appear as though the email originated from a known or authorized source.
Cyber Defamation.
Cyber tort including libel and defamation is another common crime against women in the net. Although this can happen to both genders, but women are more vulnerable. This arises when defamation takes place with the assistance of computers via Internet when someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information
Sending Obscene/ Defamatory/ Annoying Messages
Cybercrime against women includes actions like disseminating a woman’s private photos or displaying her photos and contact information on websites with pornographic content. Given that it interferes with the women’s right to privacy, which is a basic right, this also amounts to defamation. It is possible to send offensive, unpleasant messages via WhatsApp, mail, or any other social media site.
Conclusion:
Cyber crimes against women are a growing concern in the digital age. The best college for LLB discusses and explore cyber crime and women human rights among the people about the necessity and its significance to understand legal aspect in this digital age Although India has enacted laws to deal with such offences, legal measures alone cannot eliminate the problem. Greater awareness, digital literacy, strict enforcement of cyber laws, and timely reporting of offences are necessary to protect women online. A combined effort by the government, society, and technology providers is essential to create a secure and respectful cyberspace for all.
