Short Notes – Social Media Safety Tips

Introduction

Impact of Social Networking on Indian Youth

The extensive use of Social Networking in India has been on the rise among the new generation youths. In today’s world, life cannot be imagined without Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts and online handles, etc.. 

While social networking met with huge enthusiasm among new generation initially, this new social culture seems to have been accepted by all age groups in India. The rise of internet access speeds and smart phones helped social networking even more and days of considering social applications as waste of time is long gone. A global media survey report on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ presented statistics as shown.

Social Networking Aspects

There are many positive aspects of social networking, but there are equally as many dangers and negative aspects that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs.

1. Positive Aspect
2. Education

– Helps in better collaboration and communication between teachers and students;

– Access to online resources helps students to learn better, faster;

– Student grades improved along with reduced absenteeism in online sessions;

– Educational topics and school assignments being discussed on social sites.

• Politics

– Increase in voter participation, seeing their friends voted on Facebook post;

– More likely to attend a political meeting and rally seeing others on social sites;

– Social movements have easy fast method of mobilizing people and sharing info.

3.  Awareness

– Information dissemination is faster than any media

– breaking news spreads fast;

– Access to previously inaccessible resources for academic research;

– Helps inform and empower individuals to change them-selves.

4.  Social Benefits

– Social media allow people to communicate with friends and this increased online communication strengthens those relationships, friendships;

– People making new friends

– 57% online teens report making new friends online.

– Helped find and keep in touch with friends who are geographically far off

5.  Job Opportunities

– Great for marketing professionals

– connect and find business opportunities.

– Employers find candidates and unemployed find work faster.

– Social media sites have created thousands of ecommerce jobs, new avenues.

B. Negative Aspects

1.  Lack of Privacy

• Young people often give out personal information when online without reading the fine print privacy policies and unaware about misuse by third parties.
• Exposure to corporate and governmental intrusions
• Insurance companies use information gleaned from social media.
• Online advertising policies are an invasion of privacy. If clicked “like” for a brand, browser cookies give the company information and access about personal information and preferences.

2.  Users Vulnerable to Crime

• Unauthorized sharing of intellectual property can cause loss of potential income.
  • Cyber-attacks like ransom ware, hacking, identity theft and phishing are common problems faced by end users.
  • Criminals browse social media to know user whereabouts and are known to commit crimes when away on vacation.

3. Waste of Time

• Constant browsing and replying online posts and blogs, takes the user attention away from core work and often take some time to return to original task.

Accessing social networking applications by users range as follows

• Mobile Devices – 45% (Includes Smart Phones, iPads, Kindles, Tablets);
• Desktop Computers – 22%;
• Laptops – 33%.5

Brief discussion on Social Media Law India

Offenses:

• Posting of defamatory comment or material against someone- Offence under Section 66A of the IT Act, punishable with imprisonment.
• Even liking of sharing such comment can constitute an offence.
• Posting defamatory material or comment- Criminal defamation under Section 499 of IPC.
• Posting of defamatory material or comment against someone- he or she can sue you before the civil court and seek damages besides injunction.
• Posting or selling pornographic material on the net- Offence under Section 292, 292A, 293, 294 IPC punishable with imprisonment.
• Posting secret information, documents of Government, photographs of prohibited place- Punishable for the violation of Officials Secrets Act.
• Posting copied material on the website- Offence under Copyright Act.

Dos and Don’ts on social media:

• Do not make unknown people as friends.
• Do not like or share seemingly offensive comments.
• Do not make offensive comments against anyone.
• Do not post or share offensive material even against your know persons.
• Do not share any link with porn sites or like porn material.
• Do not post copied material anywhere as it may be in violation of the Copyright Act.

Social Media Law India:

Social media law India is regulated by the Information Technology Act which was enacted in the year 2000 to regulate, control and deal with the issues arising out of the IT. Section 66 A was added to the said Act vide an amendment in 2008 when Section 66 itself was found insufficient to handle all the issues arising out of the use of the internet.

The IT Act mainly handles the following main subjects:

• Legal recognition of electronic documents
• Legal Recognition of digital signatures
• Offences and contraventions Justice dispensation systems for cyber crimes

Section 66 A of the IT Act which mainly regulates the Social Media Law India reads as under:
Section 66 A: Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service etc. Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device, Any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character, or Any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will, persistently makes by making use of such computer resource or communication device.

Any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages. Shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine. Explanation For the purposes of this section terms “Electronic mail” and “Electronic Mail Message” means a message or information created or transmitted or received on a computer, computer system, computer resource or communication device including attachments in text, image, audio, video and any other electronic record, which may be transmitted with the message.

Section 66A of the IT Act has been enacted to regulate the Social Media Law India and assumes importance as it control and regulates all the legal issues related to Social Media Law India. This section clearly restricts the transmission, posting of messages, emails, comments which can be offensive or unwarranted. The offending message can be in form of text, image, audio, video or any other electronic record which is capable of being transmitted. In the current scenario, such sweeping powers under the IT Act provides a tool in the hands of the Government to curb the misuse of the Social Media Law India in any form.

The original Section 66 of the IT Act 2000 was only limited to the hacking which proved to be ineffective in tackling the problems of wrongful emails, messages and campaigns on the social media like Facebook, Tweeter. While judging the Social Media Law India one has to see Section 66A Information Technology Act 2000 and Social Media Law from the point of view of the freedom of expression granted under the Indian Constitution which is based on the principles of co-existence of the rights of all citizen and the power of the State. The freedom of expression is not an absolute freedom which anybody can claim to enjoy. It is always subject to certain restrictions which the State may impose in the interest of the citizen or the country. The act of posting of an offending comment on social media does not and cannot grant immunity from criminal prosecution for offending someone or causing a rift in the society on social or religious lines. The Social Media Law India needs to be enforced strictly as the effectiveness of social media can be misused by vested interested.

Conclusion The Social Networking patterns shown by people in the study are largely consistent with those recorded in previous research studies with respect to impact of popular social media sites on Indian culture and the extent of the use, purposes, mode of access when using these sites. We also reviewed benefits of the social networking sites in culture development, building self-identity, developing relationships and acquisition of social, communication, and technical skills.