Mumbai: At a time when the youth and children are getting addicted to the internet and the latest technologies, it has also led to a worrisome consequence — it has given sexual predators, paedophiles and other criminals a way to zoom in on the vulnerable targets. In many cases, parents are not even aware of their children's social media activity, which could land them in a serious offence and they need to report it to the police. Police sources said, cyber crimes against children and women account for about 30 per cent and are growing at 100 per cent every year. "The cases of cyber crimes have increased in the last five years. Significantly, the Centre has been focussing, during this period, on improving internet penetration in the country. Of late, people have started reporting such crimes, in which most of the time, the accused is known to the victim " said a senior police officer.
Balsingh Rajput, Superintendent of Police (SP), Cyber Crime, Maharashtra, who heads the overall execution of Maharashtra government’s cyber security project, said, with time, the accused have also changed their modus operandi and ways of approaching. "The nature of crime (against children) remains the same, but now the offenders are using technology to get close to children. From rapes to child trafficking to selling drugs near schools and colleges, these predators befriend their targets mostly on social media,” said Rajput.
A state cyber official said, most cases go undetected as multinational internet giants and social media companies refuse to share information with the police. Moreover, with the feature of allowing a sender to delete messages, from conversations or group chats, up to seven minutes after sending, has added to the existing pain. With the bouncing Internet Protocol (IP) address and internet-based calls, it becomes all the more difficult for law enforcement officials to nab the culprits.
The most common cybercrimes reported against children include circulating images, pictures, location and information about minors for child trafficking and pornography. "The accused share and sell pictures of child rape and sodomy through mobile apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc, to make money out of it. In most cases, it takes a lot of time just to get the information as the police and cyber cell officials need to trace the IP addresses and get hold of the devices (laptops, computers, mobiles etc), involved in the crime," said an official.
