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Cyberbullying is a part of cybercrime, done by an individual or group of individuals with intentions of harassing someone repeatedly, generally someone who is defenceless. It may include sharing personal information or pictures on the internet without their knowledge and consent, sending indecent messages and pictures, etc. The various mediums through which cybercrime can occur include social media platforms, instant texting applications, text messages, e-mails. India ranks 3rd when it comes to cyberbullying. A lot of the victims do not file complaints as they are afraid of getting harassed even more after raising their voices. Some common ways of cyberbullying include- calling people by offensive names on the internet, sending or asking for vulgar images, and giving physical threats.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Amendment 2008) was passed by the Indian Government to deal with crimes on the internet. One such cyber-crime is cyberbullying which impacts the victim’s life intensely but this crime has not been introduced in the Act completely yet. However, some remedies do exist in the IT Act for the victims.
Any person who violated privacy by intentionally capturing images of a person without their consent is punishable under Section 66(E) of the IT Act with imprisonment up to 3 years and/or a fine of Rs.3,00,000. Any person who transfers spreads or publishes obscene content like sexual assault of children, sexually explicit content on social media becomes punishable under Section 67 of the Act with imprisonment up to 3-5 years and/or fine of Rs.10,00,000.
IPC is the official criminal code of India and does not include specific provisions about cyber-bullying. A section does help in dealing with the offence of cyber-bullying. Any person who tries/does threaten another person anonymously on the internet or coerces them to do anything becomes punishable under section 507 of the IPC with imprisonment extending up to 2 years.
Cases of cyber-bullying are increasing every day and are prevalent amongst the youth. Few people are aware of their rights under the IT Act 2000 and the Indian Penal Code 1860. There should be open discussions on such rights and remedies to make people aware and specific sections need to be included dealing with cyberbullying where the accused gets punished as per their crime so that more people can file complaints without being afraid of getting harassed more.
For a more detailed understanding, refer to the case study of “Shibani Barik vs State Of Odisha” by clicking the link below.
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