Experts for authorities concerned, parents’ proactive role on Cyberbullying

Experts for authorities concerned, parents' proactive role on Cyberbullying

ISLAMABAD, Sept 23 (APP):The legal and Information Technology experts have urged the authorities concerned and parents to play proactive role to create more awareness on Cyber Law to yield positive results.
The Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill approved by the Parliament in 2016 to stop cyber-bullying is not producing desired goals either due to lack of awareness or lengthy turn around procedure for which every stakeholder has to play an effective role.
This hypersensitive issue involves respect and prestige of a family
and requires to be handled delicately,a Supreme Court lawyer and former president Islamabad High Court Bar, Nayyab Gardezi said.
He also stressed relevant authorities to ensure more awareness on social
media about Cyber Law to reach every vulnerable to prevent them from
e-stalking.
He said these cases must be taken up separately like family courts and
privacy and protection of the victim and his/her family must be assured to establish trust on the law and law enforcers to purge society from this scourge of e-stalking.
An IT analyst at Baker Hughes, Ayyaz said under age segment was more
vulnerable to be exploited for their lack of knowledge. The parents’ role is more important to check their children’s activities while using internet, he added.”Effective filters must be applied to the electronic gadgets, connected to the internet,” he stressed.
“The victims go through some serious mental agony and are traumatised
and this tensed situation could have grave repercussions for the affectees,
a psychiatrist at Special Education Department Ms Sundus told APP.She also gave example of a student Naila Rind Sindh University, who could not face this menace and allegedly committed suicide.
The psychiatrist also stressed to create more awareness among internet
users and said relevant institutions must establish environment of trust so that such cases be referred with full confidence and desired results be achieved.
A senior official at National Response Center for Cyber Crime
revealing the data informed that some 9075 cases were
registered under the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) in
2016. Over 70 percent cases are related to female segment
of the society, he informed on condition of anonymity.
The complainant,he said, is provided legal counselling and assured
protection of privacy by the Center.
He admitted that the number of cases reported are less than the actual
incidents of cyber stalking due to fear of defamation of victim’s family for its publicity in the trial court and beyond.”When a case is referred to court after conducting the inquiry to convict the accuse,the victim and her family become a hot pie for the media as the Response Cell’s role is over here”, he added.
Harassment and defamation cases are mostly related to women,who are
reluctant to report the incident either due to lack of awareness or mistrust on law enforces,making the Act not as fruitful as it is meant to be.
The official disclosed that some 4857 cases of cyber-bullying have so far
been reported in 2017.”Creating awareness among masses is Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) responsibility,however people are advised by the Cell not to post their family pictures and personal substance” he added.He also advised not to add strangers to
contacts to avoid any malpractice or blackmailing.

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