Three major crimes reveal dirty side of social media By Dheeraj Fartode : Case - 1: Nilesh Kadbe a history-sheeter was arrested by police for allegedly printing fake currency notes. He learnt printing currency by watching tutorials on YouTube. Case - 2: A teen was killed allegedly by a 20-year-old man who wanted to avenge the humiliation of his mother at the hands of the victims uncle. Suraj Shahu kidnapped Mangalu Pandey (15) and bludgeoned him to death with a boulder. He had hatched the conspiracy after watching a web series. Case - 3: A young man walked into the premises with a bag containing bomb which he made after watching a tutorial on YouTube. ALL the cases are proof enough to show the dangerous side of Internet and social media. It can easily turn into a tool for criminals as new crime techniques right from making a bomb to printing of fake currency notes are available on the platform. All these three big crimes were reported within a month in which social media was used by the criminals as mentors. The violent shows videos web series are influencing youngsters in such a way that they are taking it as their mentor for all the wrong reasons. Living a virtual life todays youngsters seem more inclined towards the wrong things unable to make a difference in reel and real life. Dr. Balsingh Rajput Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Crime Prevention of Mumbai Police informed The Hitavada that many such cases were reported over the years in which the investigation agencies noticed social medias influence in the crime. “Terrorist groups like ISIS are also using social media platforms to radicalise youths. They had intensively used the platforms to find and groom new terrorists in the past” Dr Rajput said. The DCP explained that on the same lines criminals are using social media to get new ideas for committing crime. The government and law enforcement agencies are continuously writing to the social media platforms to remove such contents. “Apart from the law enforcement agencies it is the duty of every social media company to sensitise the people/user and run an awareness campaign to stop misuse of the platforms” he said. Sensitisation campaign to stop misuse of social media is the need of the hour the DCP added. Consulting Psychologist Dr. Rita Aggarwal said one needs to understand that such crimes are caused by multiple factors including personality value system personal history of emotional disturbance family atmosphere and upbringing realistic and unrealistic needs of life of the criminals. Social media is one factor among them. “When the value system and the character formation are not in proper place and not fully formalised ingrained in personality people like this fall in external temptation like crime addiction abuse and assault” Dr Aggarwal said. These are all criminal activities and aberrations in society to which not every child falls prey. What is the percentage of crime coming from social media she asked. Another police official said that along with the growing street crime the brutal crimes influenced by social media have become cause of concern for the cops. “The three cases have shown the vulnerability of youngsters to dangerous content on digital platforms” he added.

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