The Internet is a powerful medium which makes collaboration, communication, and distribution easy and fast. Unfortunately, the intent can be good or evil. The internet has changed in many ways since it first became publicly accessible in the 1990s. One of the most controversial developments is the growth of the dark web. This is the part of the World Wide Web that allows users to remain anonymous. This Dark web is a hub of illegal activities owing to the structure of transmission of data here; the activities cannot be tracked.
“There are people, and there is biological waste- those who do not represent any value for society, who cause or will cause only harm to society. I was cleaning our society of such people. It was necessary to distinguish normal from biological rubbish.”
– Philipp Budeikin, Inventor of the Blue Whale game
The advent of Internet
The advent of the internet has changed the way in which people across the world communicate. It has been one of the most important developments of the 20th century. Today, it is an indispensable arena of human life. The dependence on internet is so heavy; that people have even started ordering their morning groceries from various websites across the net.
However, as every coin has two sides, so does the internet. While internet provided ease of access; it was also used by miscreants to garner their malicious intents. Recently, internet has been in the spotlight for various crimes- Cyber fraud, identity theft, hacking, cyber terrorism and many more. These crimes are not just affecting adults; but children who form the mass of the internet using population, are affected in an even graver sense. Crimes like cyber bullying, choking game, fire challenge and other challenges; where teens are forced into self harm due to peer pressure social validation has led to depression in teenagers.
The Dark Web
Moreover, while using the internet, children and teenagers fall prey to vicious trap of the dark web. The dark web is a small subset of the deep web; which is part of the internet that is not found using search engines. It includes many websites that require users to log in with a username and password; and the deep web is estimated to be about 400 to 500 times larger than the common internet. The dark web is relatively smaller. It is made up of a series of encrypted networks that is able to hide users’ identities and locations; and can only be accessed with special software. Relying on the assurity of anonymity provided by this level of the Internet; people use it for malicious purposes; such as drug dealing, human- organ sale and most importantly, crimes related to children.
Need of the Hour
Even though cyber bullying is as prevalent in society as any other form of abuse; not as much importance is given to educating people about the prevention and the care for victims of cyber abuse. Only when games like the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ become popular; people are forced to acknowledge the threat that is looming in everyone’s living room.
Since the time the creator was arrested; there were other “Administrators” who had taken over as “Mentors” and were manipulating the victims. Hence mere arrest of one individual would not bring an end to the menace; and we should be ready for more such games to hit the market as long as the sadist technologically savvy creators are out there in the wild.
Blue Whale Challenge and other viral challenges like the Choking Game; and the most recent- Momo Challenge, are not the only forms of cyber threats out there. Cyber bullying can range from just a rude comment on a social media posts to outright trolling and harassment.
Conclusion
These creators and the administrators are hard core psychos. Hence, if they are caught; one should put them permanently behind the bar; or even eliminate them with a death sentence. In the meantime a step that can be taken is to address ways by which children can be protected. The Government should take steps to prevent children from falling prey to such life threatening cyber- crimes.
“On the internet, one can learn how to make biryani & a bomb. While it empowers, it also provides a platform for exploitation of impressionable minds.”
– Ankita Sen (The Economic Times), October 06, 2017