Net pornography incident at Bal Bharti School raises several issues

The arrest of a teenager from Bal Bharti Air Force

School for launching a pornographic site has raised a number of social and legal

issues.

The crime involves a 16-year old schoolboy who had put

up a site named www.amazing-gents.8m.net, which provided lewd details about the

physical attributes and sexual preferences of a long list of girls and teachers

at the school. No doubt this is a serious issue as pornography itself is wrong,

more so when it involves the reputation and thereby the dignity of fellow school

mates and teachers. Such action can never be condoned and explained away.

Nonetheless, it is also an issue that needs to be

addressed from a larger social perspective. According to the national daily that

broke the story, "what was scary is according to the school staff there was

nothing out of the ordinary about the boy...he was the boy next door." And

that's exactly the crux of the issue, which has a very pertinent social angle.

The arrest of the boy has attracted much attention

because it is the first case to be registered in the country under Section 67 of

the IT Act. Shorn of that angle, we are left with an issue where a 16-year old

boy has indulged in an act, which is typically wide spread amongst adolescents.

And it is this widespread tendency amongst adolescents that needs to be

addressed at the social level. The onus clearly lies on us as society, school

and particularly parents to take a re-look at our attitude towards teenagers and

sex.

Emphasizing this aspect of the incident, Mala Bhargava,

Editor Computers@Home, questioned, "Are we geared up to help our children

experience this transition into adulthood? Have we spoken to them about the

facts explaining them that such conduct is accepted under an environment of love

but unacceptable when the intent is to harm others? It is time for us to accept

sex as a part of life and take it up as a natural topic with children. It is

time to have an 'Internet talk' with our children--open, friendly and

educative."

This incident is only the first of the many that we are

about to witness. Internet is just another medium of language. As Pramod Mahajan,

Minister for Information Technology, has so often pointed out, "IT is the

fourth generation of human language--the sign language, verbal, written and the

digital language in that order." The power of Internet as a medium is

enormous and our children have to be made aware about this. Therefore when we

use this medium for something that could be harmful, the impact of the act could

be that much more serious.

This is one aspect which Rajan Bhagat, ACP, Cyber Crime

Branch, Delhi Police, who is handling the case also endorses. "It is also

the onus of the school to point out to students that the power of the Internet

could be like a double-edge sword." Understandably, the school authorities

were not available for comment.

Anonymity of the Net presents an opportunity where

suppressed wishes can be made manifest. In this incident too the boy in question

suffers from leucoderma and was frequently teased by his peer group for it. The

website could have been a great way to get back. Most users when joining a chat

room adorn assumed names and switch identities. While it may be a great way to

release suppressed desires, it also raises a more ethical question, 'How much is

enough?'

The website in question is apparently very amateurish,

mostly text-based and almost no graphics. But the content was so vulgar that had

the Crime Branch used excerpts of it in its FIR, it would been hauled up for

being lewd, says the newspaper report. Section 67 of the IT Act prevents the

publication of any matter in electronic format, which is lascivious or prurient

in interest or which aims to deprave and corrupt the minds who are likely to

see, hear or read the same. The lewd details about girls and teachers on the

website have the potential to incite negative thoughts in readers.

Being the first incident of its kind, this will be the

testing ground for the police in several aspects. Is the Crime Branch

technology-savvy enough to be able to present the case in the court of law? For

instance what are the things that have been seized by the police? The Act itself

does not provide any guidelines on the seizure of evidence in a pornographic

case.

Pavan Duggal, a leading Supreme Court lawyer

specializing in Cyber Laws poses a number of interesting questions. First, he

muses whether the website has been blocked or taken off the server? How would

the nexus between the boy and the site be established? How would the police

establish that the culprit was indeed the teenager? And finally, how would the

law treat the offence by a child as against that of an adult?

ACP Bhagat is not oblivious to these issues either.

According to him, the site has been taken off the server but the police have

taken care to take printouts of the content that would establish evidence.

Besides, a lot of evidence from the website has been downloaded and saved in

floppies. Although after extensive interrogation the boy has confessed to the

crime, the police too are aware that it is no evidence in the court of law. But

Bhagat is confident that the police have a strong case since the department has

collected enough evidence that would incriminate the boy.

Been a minor, the police has currently sent the boy to

the Juvenile home in Timarpur. He has been charged in the FIR under three

Acts--Section 67 of the IT Act, under 4/6 article of the indecent representation

of the women's Act and 292/509 IPC. After through investigations, the police

expect to file the charge sheet within a month's time. Under the current

charges, the boy could face imprisonment up to five years in jail or fine up to

Rs 1 lakh.

With the Cyber Laws just taking off, the already

burdened Indian courts could expect to be flooded with litigations related to

cyber crimes. Given the gray areas in the IT Act, it has the potential to make

life complicated for lot of us. But the only ones who would be gleefully

watching the latest developments with interest is the new breed of Cyber

lawyers--yet another breed of professionals spawned by the IT revolution.

(CNS)