Abstract

With our growing dependency on technology and digitalization of every day activities, the incidences of cyber offences has been on the rise. As technological developments are made, sociopaths find newer ways to exploit them for personal gain. While financial exploitations are on the rise and are openly spoken about, the subtler yet graver offence of sexual exploitation of women and children over the internet is creeping higher on the graphs as well. Owing to fear of judgment by the society and consequential victim shaming, the victims often keep it on the down low when they get trapped in this vicious cycle causing more courage to the offenders that they can walk free without any accountability. The anonymity and privacy provided by social media fake accounts and dependency on VPN services and DarkWeb encourage these offenders to boldly engage in offences that they would never dare to commit in person as their identity would be easily given away. Information Technology Act, 2000, Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 have been long established to recognize and penalize cyber offences. But people lack general awareness about how offenders target their victims and how to respond to them. Government has been taking steps to curb the growth of the offences by bringing out national policy and web portals for reporting such offences efficiently and speedily. Yet there are lacunas in the implementation and enforcement of existing laws causing people to lose faith in the judiciary and enforcement agencies. Overall the paper focuses on why cyber crimes are rampant and what role society can play in curbing its growth and pave way for a safer and secure online world for both women and children.

Keywords