Sonali Patankar is the Founder of ‘Responsible Netism’- an initiative aimed at promoting cyber wellness and responsible online behaviour among children and adults. She holds a degree in Social Work from Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, Mumbai and a Diploma in School Counselling from SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai.
‘Responsible Netism’ is a social purpose initiative committed to the cause of cyber wellness and child online protection working in Maharashtra, Goa and Madhya Pradesh.
She took lead in launching India’s 1st Cyber Wellness Centre in Goa to provide preventive and curative healing services on online distress. Having successfully educated over 1.7 million children and adults since inception, her initiative aspires to collectively make India cyber safe.
In this interview with Sarika Sawant for Open Interview, Patankar talks about the issues and challenges being faced by- especially- women, children and elderly due to the growing cases of cybercrimes. She shares her experience of solving cyber issues, creating awareness about preventive measures for cyber frauds and attacks, results of surveys she conducted and also provides practical and achievable solutions to deal with the varied forms of cyber issues.
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• Being a child online protectionist, what kind of current trends do you notice in the cyber domain— both nationally and globally?
Our ‘Responsible Netism’ authenticates its interventions based on studies conducted on internet trends of children so to design and implement strategies to safeguard internet safety rights of children and adults. The use of e-devices in India, even in other parts of the world, has been substantially high ever since the pandemic days. Based on our ground experiences and evidence, not through any form of research or study, we could identify the following India-specific trends:
The children’s exposure to digital devices and online content is deeply concerning. We have witnessed an alarming trend of children, as young as wo-years old, being introduced to these devices, which has even resulted In infants losing their vision due to excessive screen time. Parents are struggling to manage and monitor their children’s screen usage, leading to a high rise in age-inappropriate content exposure.
Our research conducted in Maharashtra in 2021, involving 1200 students, revealed that a staggering 83.38% of children face mild to severe forms of cybercrime.Furthermore, 45% of children aged 10 to 16 admitted to struggling to control their screen time, impacting their academic performance. In our 2022 study with over 20,000 children in Mumbai, 83% experienced some form of cybercrime, but less than 16% informed their parents, due to fear of having their devices confiscated. Disturbingly, over 30% shared their online experiences with friends, and more than 70% were unaware of how to respond to a cybercrime. This surge in digital exposure, exacerbated by the pandemic, has made children more vulnerable to online strangers and predators, emphasizing the urgent need for comprehensive online safety education and parental guidance.
• We tend to share more personal details online without paying much attention to ‘what to share and what not to share’? So, what constitutes ‘personal information’ in cyberspace as generally?
Personal data or information is as good as currency today. It holds very high value in the digital space. Internet is like a public hoarding and hence privacy is a myth. Due to lack of awareness about protection of personal data, personal information is shared very casually across online platforms. This increases the risk of cyber vulnerabilities and adds to the increase in online frauds and crimes. So, netizens need to be empowered with the right to protect their personal data.
Personal data can comprise of personal information related to a specific person for example, name, email, contact number, address, important documents such as passport details, PAN, Adhaar, personal and sensitive images, videos, personal banking details of credit debit cards, OTP’s, passwords, medical records, health policies, insurance, investment details, etc.
It is absolutely crucial for individuals to grasp the significance of safeguarding their personal information when navigating the digital landscape. To protect your data effectively, there are several key practices to keep in mind. First and foremost, always verify the recipient of your data and ensure their legitimacy. Likewise, confirm the authenticity of the platform you are using before sharing any personal information and understand the purpose behind their request for such data. Maintaining vigilance and being cautious about sharing personal details is essential.
Staying informed about your country’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and its implications— for both individuals and the legal system is vital. Familiarizing oneself with the safety and privacy settings of the devices in use is also recommended. Additionally, understanding the Information Technology Act and its consequences is crucial, as is learning how to report violations of data protection rights to seek justice. Lastly, one should not hesitate to seek help and support in cases of online distress. It is a sign of strength and resilience in the today’s digital age.
Most importantly, understanding the fact that what goes online always stays online. Our personal information through our social media presence helps predators read our personality through social engineering and hence the mindfulness about sharing personal information lies with each netizen and hence is a responsibility.
• Post COVID period, there is an increased use of technology by the children of different age groups. Technical gadgets in a study room or drawing room is almost common now. But has this resulted in excessive use of other than educational content and that is leading to psychological and cyber safety issues? What is your take on this?
Post COVID, since the whole world relied on digital platforms, children too explored the opportunity to the fullest. From shared, devices, that were in open spaces, parents had to provide personal devices to children for their academic needs. It was difficult for parents to set apart time for educational use and entertainment use. On an average, children from the age of four-years onward use screen-time for over 5–9 hours a day. With no or little parental monitoring and a lack of awareness about their children’s device behaviour, children often engage in high-risk activities. Very often their unmindful usage increased their vulnerabilities to predators in cyberspace.
During the pandemic with schools going online and a lack of awareness about using video conferencing platforms, children often violated rules of the online classes by sharing age-inappropriate content and cyberbullying was rampant during online classes. We received cases of children sharing online links with strangers, strangers infiltrated into online classes and shared sensitive sexual content and links, disrupting the meeting and creating chaos.
After the pandemic, we saw trends of children getting very comfortable with online classes and preferring online than offline. Children faced severe anxiety while interacting with people offline causing social anxiety. Adapting to the offline education system became challenging with children refusing to go to schools. Younger children faced issues with fine and gross motor related activities especially because devices were replaced by regular objects. Social skills, inter and intrapersonal skills, physical interactions were affected. Children engaged in high-risk behaviours that involved increased interactions with strangers, some were shown and asked for objectionable content and also subjected to various forms of threats and blackmail. What content children consumed online was unrestricted, and unknown to parents, the influences of the internet influenced children’s perception and choices.
• Many school boards have been introducing cyber issues in their curriculum. What is your take on this as you have experience developing content and material on child online protection for Maharashtra State Council for Education, Research and Training (MSCERT). What changes or improvements do you suggest?
A welcoming decision to implement online safety into the academic curriculum was introduced by the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) to empower students, teachers and parents about online safety protocols within schools. ‘Responsible Netism’ was able to contribute through a chapter on child online protection covering all forms of cyber-crimes against children and their coping mechanism for MSCERT’s Manual on Children’s Safety which was distributed in schools across the state of Maharashtra.
The challenge lies in its implementation and ownership lies on the school to deliver the content. For teachers, the additional task of implementing content on cyber safety was overwhelming to cope with, especially without training.
We recommended some strategies: train teachers and counsellors within schools to implement the content within schools; engage with external organizations like ours to implement education programmes within schools; make online safety a part of the offline safety mandate within schools; invest in regular training of teachers to upgrade their technology skills; make online safety education mandatory for schools from the primary section; set up support systems within schools to handle online distress, etc.
• How to teach school or college-going girls and boys to be careful about cyberbullying or cyber harassment? Your tips for parents and teachers?
Child online protection is every child’s right but every adult’s responsibility. To ensure netizens feel safe in cyberspace we need to equip them with skills to safeguard their rights in cyberspace. It begins by empowering them with knowledge and information to identify threats and forms of cyber violence or online distress.
On the preventive front, teaching children and youth to understand and set boundaries, understand consent, assent and its consequences are extremely critical life skills that need to be inculcated. Building the agency of the child and youth to make the right and safe choices on the internet is part of inculcating cyber hygiene values in them. This would build resilience in them to cope with online distress.
According to the latest statistics of Indian children and youth and their internet behaviour, one out of every three children face cyberbullying, which is the most common crime committed and faced by them. With such an alarming number of cybercrimes, preventive and curative strategies and interventions need to be implemented at the earliest.
For children and youth, it is crucial to be equipped with strategies to cope with cyberbullying or harassment: first and foremost, they should develop the ability to identify the nature of threats or harassment they encounter online. When faced with such situations, it is important not to react impulsively but rather respond by preserving evidence through screenshots. If they are under 18, they should reach out to a trusted adult, whether it is a parent, older relative, teacher, counsellor, or school authority, and report the incident.
Additionally, reporting the content directly on the platform, following the platform’s reporting guidelines, and submitting a detailed complaint on official cybercrime websites is essential (cybercrime.gov.in) For added support, they can contact helplines for free guidance (73531 07353). When encountering sexually explicit or obscene content related to minors, they should report it for removal on dedicated platforms (https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/and https://stopncii.org/) Above all, they should remember their right to online safety and not allow anyone to make them feel miserable; seeking external help when needed is paramount.
For educators and parents, it is crucial to proactively engage with technology and overcome any fear associated with it. They should establish open lines of communication within the family, creating a safe space for children to express their concerns and fears regarding online experiences. Learning to report incidents aggressively and proactively is important to address any online distress promptly. Seeking help when necessary and building cyber resilience are key aspects of supporting children in the digital age. Additionally, they should work together to create an online safety policy for educational institutions, complete with protocols for handling online distress, ensuring a safer online environment for students.
• How do you define cyber violence? Is cyber violence more age-specific than gender specific— like men and women? Which is the most vulnerable group?
The right to safety and protection is a basic human right. Everybody wishes to feel safe and protected from abuse, threat and violence. Since we are all now living more actively in the digital world, ‘Responsible Netism’ has been advocating for the rights of netizens in cyberspace as well. Violations of safety rights in cyberspace is cyber violence or cyber abuse which is a crime. As I said before, children being digitally smarter fall prey to predators due to a lack of understanding of their irresponsible online behvaiour. Women having limited understanding of technology makes them soft targets of internet-based crimes which are called gender-based crimes.
• What are the key forms of cyber violence related to women which need much attention?
For centuries, women have been subjected to various forms of abuse and crimes in the offline world. With the advent of technology and access to the internet and devices, crimes have shifted to the digital world. Technology is being used as a tool to harass, exploit and abuse women, cybercrimes against women have surged by over 200% in recent years.
Cybercrimes against women spread across a wide spectrum ranging from using the internet to access personal information, sending phishing and spoofing emails, hacking their social media accounts, creating fake accounts or using impersonation as a tool to overpower or threaten them to sending them offensive, obscene, derogatory content to malign their image. Cyber-stalking, a common crime committed to stalk women for personal gain, photo or video morphing content into nudes or semi-nudes to extract money or sexual favours by blackmailing them falls under the category of heinous crimes against women. Young girls are often lured for money, jobs, better opportunities, earning a better living or stardom leading to their sexual exploitation and further exploitation related to flesh trade and trafficking of women for sex or slavery.
Cyber-criminals often target women with malicious intent for their personal gain or to take revenge to defame them with the intent to cause harm. All of these cyber threats often cause very long-term psychological damage which receives no support or closure.
• There is an increased use of matrimonial sites. There are many instances of cheating, abuse and blackmail. What is your advice to the users and parents?
Dating apps and matrimonial sites have also been targets of cyber predators to access and exploit women. Initially, these platforms had very poor strategies for verification of accounts and reporting of content and profiles, a lot of women were subjected to abuse. Navigating through fake accounts, criminals often target women by building a bond and relationship with them and then gradually trapping them for money or exploiting them sexually. There was a surge of cases of matrimonial site fraud that were reported, we too raised an alarm about the rise in cases of fraud on these platforms to the local law enforcement after which these platforms claimed to strengthen their process of registration, verification and reporting.
Our advice for using such platforms is: use verified trusted sites by checking their ratings, reviews and authentication; do not use free platforms to save money, paid platforms provide better protection and safety mechanisms; try to verify the platform physically through your acquaintance; the liability is of the user and not the platform hence be cautious and wise; share only basic information in your biodata; do not make any financial or material commitments to the partner you connect with on such platforms; read, and understand the safety security policy of the platform while signing up; protect your identity and profile with a strong password and restrict your account.
• Most of the time many victims tend to push the cyber violence under carpet- thinking of backlash in their community or close circle. There might be thousands of unregistered cybercrime cases against women. How this can be eased?
The biggest challenge related to cybercrimes is lack of reporting. Many factors contribute to the underreporting of cybercrimes. Victims of cyber-violence often face psychological distress due to the shame, guilt fear attached to them. Lack of support systems within the society and no ground-level mechanisms for victims discourages reporting. Their past experience with law enforcement and the treatment meted with also impacts reporting. The psychological trauma caused due to the distress aggravates the damage caused.
Considering these factors, we launched our pan-India Cyber Wellness Helpline that offers psychological support, legal guidance and technical support free of cost to victims of online distress. Building cyber resilience through awareness and education will only strengthen reporting hence building stronger redressal systems for addressing cyber-related grievances in critical. We have also made recommendations on simplifying the reporting mechanisms for common people to increase reporting. Continuous capacity building of law enforcement personnel has been in the process. Making reporting easy, trustworthy, user-friendly and effective will encourage people to take action against cybercrimes they face.
• What are the legal provisions available, especially for women for cyber harassment/ bullying?
Cyber Bullying is committed with the help of various communication technologies to threaten, harass, insult and defame the person.
We delve into the disturbing realm of cyberbullying, a pervasive issue that plagues our online spaces. It is imperative that we understand the various facets of this digital menace. First, harassment— where in a person can harass someone by constantly sending them threatening or dangerous messages. These messages are sent with the intent to harm someone physically or their reputation.
There is outing or doxing, a deplorable act of exposing sensitive information without consent to humiliate the victim. Then, we have trickery, a deceitful tactic where bullies befriend their targets only to exploit their trust by revealing private information. Cyberstalking, a grave concern, can escalate to dangerous levels, particularly targeting vulnerable groups like women and children in India.
Moving forward, fraping involves using victims’ social media platforms to post inappropriate content, tarnishing their reputations. Masquerading employs fake profiles to harass individuals, while dissing aims to destroy reputations through cruel information dissemination.
Trolling, an ever-present issue, involves posting indecent remarks, with gender-based trolling being particularly insidious.
Lastly, flaming encompasses direct insults and vulgar messages. It’s crucial that we recognize and combat these forms of cyberbullying, promoting a safer digital environment for all. Awareness and proactive measures are our weapons against this digital scourge.
Though there is no specific law for reporting cyberbullying under the Information and Technology Act, but the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act 2000 cover bullying under harassment of women, which covers defamation, indecent representation of women and related crimes. The following sections are used to register cases of cyberbullying under the IPC: Sec 304 to 307; Sec 323 to 326, Sec 506 and some provisions in IT Act viz. Sec 66C to 66E, 67B and Sec 72.
Cases of cyberbullying can specifically be reported on individual social media platforms under the category of bullying and action is taken by the intermediary. Cases of cyber against women can also be reported to the central government helpline on 1930 and to cybercrime.gov.in and to the National Commission for Women on their helpline 78271 70170 and to the Maharashtra State Commission for Women on their helpline 74777 22424.
• You also work for police reforms in Mumbai and Thane in the context of cyber issues. Would you please share your experience working with the police force?
Capacity building of law enforcement personnel is an ongoing process due to their nature of transferable jobs and a bigger challenge with respect to technology since the pace at which newer forms of technologies have been emerging within very short intervals. This has also changed the dynamics of cyber frauds hence the modus operandi of crimes are extremely fast-paced. Coping with the speed of technology and its advancement and relevant capacity building is the need of the hour.
‘Responsible Netism’ has been able to train officers within Maharashtra, Goa and Thane about cases of cybercrimes related to women and children. ‘Responsible Netism’ has recently published a handbook which was released by the Minister of Women and Child Maharashtra titled, “Cyber Crimes against Women and Children – A Guide to Law Enforcement Agencies” which has been distributed across states to over 500 organizations and the police departments.
• What precautionary measures do you suggest for children to be careful in the virtual world?
Children constitute the largest segment of internet users globally and hence very vulnerable to cybercrimes. Basic tips for safety precautions and well-being in cyberspace are critical for inculcating values of cyber hygiene in children.
When it comes to staying safe and responsible online, there are several important guidelines to follow. Firstly, it is crucial to understand the platforms you use thoroughly, including their privacy settings and security features. Secondly, always opt for age-appropriate legal platforms and online games, as they are designed with your safety in mind. Additionally, you should be vigilant in identifying and promptly reporting any form of cyber distress you encounter, using the reporting mechanisms provided by the platform.
Cyberbullying is a serious issue, so it is essential to stand strong against it and report it when it happens. If you ever face harassment online, don’t hesitate to inform and report it to a trusted adult who can provide guidance and support. Lastly, always remember to be safe and responsible in your online activities, respecting the rights and boundaries of others while enjoying the digital world responsibly.
• Your advice to women and specifically young women to remain empowered in the online world?
The internet is an evolving amazing platform that has provided tremendous opportunities for growth for all. It is critical to empower netizens with skillsets to adapt to technology and foster wellbeing in cyberspace. The representation of women in technology in our country is below 30%, women need to explore and be given equal opportunities to explore technology as their career choices. Although their vulnerabilities are higher, education and empowerment can only equip them to combat online distress to find collective solutions to protect themselves in cyberspace.
A few takeaways for women are: adapt, accept and embrace technology; learn basic skills about the devices you use; learn the use of the platform and the device; set your safety and protection on priority; learn to stand for your safety rights; report content fearlessly and aggressively; be a responsible Netizens and advocate for cyber wellbeing.
We believe the Internet needs to be an equal, Inclusive, happy space for all and if all take accountability for our online behaviour, we would be able to collectively make India a cyber-safe country for our children and women.
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Note • All the answers/ facts/ opinions expressed in this document are of the interviewee.
Courtesy • tbcy.in • Editing: Santosh C. Hulagabali • Phootograph- Linked Profile of the interviewee.
Cite • Sarika Sawant (2023 November 17 ).[Blog post]. Sonali Patankar. There is an urgent need for comprehensive online safety education and parental guidance. Retrieved from: https://openinterview.org/2023/11/17/sonali-patankar-there-is-an-urgent-need-for-comprehensive-online-safety-education-and-parental-guidance/
Sarika Sawant, PhD., is an Associate Professor in the SHPT School of Library Science, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. She has several papers to her credit published in international and national journals. She has great interest in research and completed three minor research projects. She has presented papers in several international platforms including IFLA 2016 and 2018 conferences.
For reference:
- Sec 304: provisions of culpable homicide become applicable in situation where the victim dies.
- Sec 306: Abetment of suicide in cases where the cyberbullying leads to someone committing suicide.
- Sec 307: Attempt to murder where the cyberbullying leads to murder.
- Sec 323 to 326: Causing hurt and grievous hurt and their respective punishments, this can become applicable in situations where cyberstalking turns into stalking which further takes the form of perpetrator harassing and causing hurt to the victim.
- Sec 506: Punishment for criminal intimidation
- Sec 66C of IT Act: Identity Theft
- Sec 66D of IT Act: Cheating by impersonation by using the computer resource
- Sec 66E of IT Act: Violation of privacy
- Sec 67B of IT Act: Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in any sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form
- Sec 72 of the IT Act: Breach of confidentiality and privacy
Very comprehensive and insightful interview. The topic choosen is the need of the day.
It is an informative interview. Congratulations!!
Well framed questions by Dr. Sarika Sawant which revealed important information on cyber safety by Sonali Patankar.
It’s a important conversation related to safety precautions and wellbeing as part of our interactions on internet. The discussion is solution oriented and gives a direction to overall navigation tips for the cyber world, especially for women, children and their parents.
Thank you Dr Sawant and Ms Patankar for valuable discussion on this topic.
Dr. Sarika Sawant has aptly drafted the questions which have been well answered by Ms. Sonali Patankar.
Very nice interview by Dr Sawant with Mrs.Sonali Patankar. Thank you
Nice and thought provoking interview Dr.Sarika Sawant. Congratulations to Mrs. Sonali Patankar for sharing her thoughts on such timely and burning issue.
Nice topic and content