Digital Crimes on Indian Online Dating Platforms during Covid-19: Impact on Women

Over the years specifically in the year 2020, the Information and Communication Technology has touched the entire spectrum of our life as everything has started to see its course online. From the work culture to online shopping and offline meetings to online and physical dating to online dating, everything is now just a click away or must the authors say swipe away. Online dating has seen rapid growth in the past few years. The numbers have specifically increased a lot during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper focuses firstly on the increase in the number of women using online dating websites during this lockdown and how most of these women fall prey to scams or cyber-crimes on the said platforms. Secondly, it throws lights on particular dating websites and why specifically women are being targeted. The latter half of the paper highlights the existing laws that are put in place in India and how the general public must be made aware of the same to know their rights. In the end, this research paper throws light on several cases related to online dating in the past few years in India and their analysis.