Monitor children’s online information sharing
Monitor children’s online information sharing
Experts advise parents amid rise in cyber crimes
Srinagar, Dec 17 : With children becoming victims of cyber crime more increasingly, Jammu and Kashmir Police and experts on Saturday asked parents to encourage children to be careful while sharing information online.
“ Encourage your children to be careful and cautious while disclosing personal information online,” Cyber Police Kashmir, Tweeted on Friday morning.
Officials of Cyber Police, Kashmir told Greater Kashmir that there have been instances where information was taken from children to be misused.
The officials said that they continue to urge the parents to encourage children to remain careful while sharing online information.
“ Like other parts of the country, children here have also become victims of cyber crime,” officials said, adding that even children were being stalked on social media.
“ They should be aware that their accounts are monitored by others,” the official said.
There has been a rise in online frauds and blackmailing, police and cyber experts said here on Friday, as they cautioned teenagers to be careful with how they use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
" There has been an increase in online frauds during the lockdown that was enforced due to the coronavirus outbreak. There have been instances of cloning of Facebook profiles where frauds use the fake profile to seek money from the victim's contacts," a senior Cyber Police officer said.
" Another form of online trouble is 'honey trap' where an unknown social media user befriends a person and engages the user in personal conversation and over a period of time gains their trust to persuade them into sharing personal pictures or videos or crucial information which is later used to blackmail the user,” the officer said.
Noting that "digital footprints cannot be erased", he stressed that users should frequently change their passwords and use privacy tools on social media to keep risk of fraud and harm at bay.
It needs to be mentioned here that more than 400 per cent increase in cybercrime cases committed against children was reported in 2020 in comparison to 2019, with most of them relating to publishing or transmitting of materials depicting children in sexually explicit act, according to the latest NCRB data.
As the NCRB 2020 data reveals, there is a sharp rise (over 400 per cent) in cyber crimes (registered under the Information Technology Act) committed against children in comparison to the last year.
In 2019, 164 cases of cyber crimes against children were reported while in 2018, 117 cases of cyber crimes were committed against children and 79 such cases were registered in 2017.
Even though the number of cybercrime cases committed against children in 2020 remains small, its rise from 2019 is alarming.
