Cyber Bullying Cyber Bullying is a growing menace all around the world. It includes bullying classmates, juniors or even seniors in the school is a common culture among the young school students. Mostly it is unprovoked teasing which in some circumstances turn as unintentional abuse of power by one or more children in order to inflict pain or cause distress to another child on repeated occasions. It is a common form of child abuse (Dawkins J, Hill P. Bullying: Another form of abuse ?) Various countries like UK and US are already in the process of legislating on the matter. Though Cananda and South Korea have already passed laws in the matter, whereas India lags behind. Related News One in ten workers 'experience cyber-bullying' Teachers call for YouTube ban over 'cyber-bullying' Cyber-bullying increases in US One in three suffer cyber-bullying Educators to work on anti-online bullying plan Cyber bullying threat to teachers More about Cyber Bullying in Indian Scenario is discussed below in the article contributed by our esteemed member. The problem of cyber bullying amongst school students in India: The loopholes in IT Act An Article by Ms. Debarati Halder and Mr. K. Jaishankar Introduction: Bullying classmates, juniors or even seniors in the school is a common culture among the young school students in India. Mostly it is unprovoked teasing which in some circumstances turn as unintentional abuse of power by one or more children in order to inflict pain or cause distress to another child on repeated occasions. It is a common form of child abuse ( Dawkins J, Hill P. Bullying: Another form of abuse?) . Bullying in a broader sense also includes cyber bullying through internet and mobile phones. While simple teasing regarding one’s personal habits, figure , or any other object which generates curiosity in the young minds is not gravely harmful, but when the same verbal remarks make a child suffer deep depression, withdrawal symptoms or even affect his studies, the seriousness of the issue does not remain bounded in only “just for fun sake”. With the easy access to mobile phones and internet by the school students, the matter becomes more serious as the identity of the victim may be revealed to a bigger circle. It is how ever, a very much neglected fact that the habit of bullying and cyber bullying in schools open the path way for the offender to become a habitual ragger in colleges and even turn him into a cyber criminal. Unfortunately, such an important issue has been totally overlooked by the legislators while promulgating cyber law. Even though with the establishment of IT Act, Indian Penal code, Indian Evidence Act, The Banker’s Books Evidence Act and the Reserve bank of India Act have been amended, Juvenile Justice Act has not been touched upon. It is a hard truth that cyber crime affects children to a greatest extent and in modern India they are practically left defenseless in cyber world. Further in India there is no school manual, guidelines or uniform regulations to prevent bullying or cyber bullying and unfortunately neither the IT Act, 2000, nor the Juvenile Justice Act deals with such subjects of cyber bullying. Read More

India 1. Nasscom to roll out more cyber security initiatives Nasscom is planning to introduce more advanced training programmes covering cyber forensic tools and methodologies through its Cyber Labs Read Story | Discuss 2. Bangalore Police cracks Khafeel online plans & activities The Bangalore police claims it has cracked the Internet-surfing habits of Dr Kafeel Ahmed, the city native alleged to be involved in the UK terror plot, after piecing together information from his family and data from Internet service providers. Read Story | Discuss 3. Pune Police set to discipline cyber cafes In an attempt to prevent cyber crimes and regularise cyber cafes and commercial centres offering virtual reality games, the police have formulated licensing rules for these 'entertainment' centres under the Bombay Police Act, 1960. Read Story | Discuss 4. Kerala Police probe leaders profiles on Orkut The cyber high-tech cell of Kerala police is investigating the creation of unauthorised profiles of political leaders, including Chief Minister V S Achuuthanandan and Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy on the friendship website Orkut. Read Story | Discuss 5. Software engineer held for cyber crime The Cyber Crime Cell of the CID Crime Branch on Friday arrested a former employee of an information technology (IT) company on charges of hacking into the server and stealing confidential data. Read Story | Discuss 6. Cyber crime low, but India's red flag’s up India generates just 2.8 per cent of global spam, says report. But still India is pretty low down on the totem pole for cyber crimes: way behind the malicious, crooked and cross-wired geeks in the US, China and Europe. Read Story | Discuss USA 1. Expert: ID theft arrests validate California disclosure law The Secret Service's recent arrest and indictment of four Cuban nationals in Florida for ID theft is evidence that a presidential task force's recommendations on ID theft are out of touch with reality, said Mari Frank, an expert and former victim of ID theft. Read Story | Discuss 2. California police looking for craigslist robbers In a disturbing new trend of cyber crime, Pittsburg police are looking for two robbers who lured victims Tuesday evening to an apartment complex with a Craigslist classified ad. Read Story | Discuss 3. Cyber-stalking ban postponed until next year Because of prison overcrowding and a blanket policy regarding new crime legislation, a state bill targeting online harassment will not move forward until at least next year. Read Story | Discuss 4. Cyber Extortionists Reappear, Attack US Companies Online extortionists have resurfaced, breaking into users' systems, encrypting their data, and then holding it hostage until a $300 ransom is paid. A cyberblackmailer tormented users in Russia between 2005 and 2006. Now the extortionists have reappeared, according to researchers at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab. And it also appears they've branched outside Russian borders. Read Story | Discuss 5. Big Brands Battle Cyber Squatter Scourge Companies as well known and diverse as Marriott, Yahoo! and Dell are uniting to lobby Congress to create tougher laws against cyber squatters, scammers and others who take advantage of brand names in the digital space. Read Story | Discuss 6. Google plans YouTube antipiracy tool for September Google aims to deliver in September a long-awaited and much-promised technology to combat piracy in its YouTube video sharing site. During a hearing Friday in the copyright-infringement lawsuit that Viacom filed against Google, a Google attorney told the judge Google was working "very intensely" on a video recognition technology. Read Story | Discuss Europe 1. EU search engine probe expands beyond Google European privacy regulators will expand their investigation into Google's privacy practices to all search engine companies, it has said. Read Story | Discuss 2. ISP told to block file-sharing in landmark case An internet service provider in Belgium must screen traffic for music piracy, a court has ruled in a decision which overturns conventional thinking on how two major European directives relate to one another. Read Story | Discuss 3. Three jailed in Britain for engaging in 'cyber jihad' Three al-Qaida inspired extremists including their Morocco-born leader who dubbed himself "the jihadist James Bond" have been jailed in Britain for engaging in 'cyber-jihad' by inciting terrorism on the internet. Read Story | Discuss 4. Careless and inexcusable data lapses slammed by UK privacy chief The Government and some of Britain's largest companies are guilty of "careless and inexcusable" data security lapses leading to serious breaches of privacy, the Information Commissioner has said. Read Story | Discuss 5. Deal struck on the phone is binding, rules High Court An oral contract over the phone is binding, the High Court has ruled in a multi-million pound case which threatened to undermine the way the world of high finance operates. The verbal agreement did not have to be in writing, the court found. Read Story | Discuss Others 1. Sri Lanka Law Cyber Law reviewed The New Act introduces a new regime for the investigation of offences. The value of legislating on this subject will be of no effect unless investigations can be done efficiently and effectively. To achieve this objective, a provision has been included enabling a panel of ‘experts’ to assist the Police in the investigation of computer crime offences. Read Story | Discuss 2. Dubai: Credit card users fall prey to criminals prowling net Cases related to credit cards make up 10 per cent of the total cyber crime cases heard by Dubai Courts, revealed a top official of Dubai Police’s cyber crime unit. Read Story | Discuss 3. Korea: Military Remains Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks The computer network of the Korean military was attacked by 40 hacking attempts and 949 viruses last year. There are urgent calls for improved security of the military computer network. Read Story | Discuss 4. Hong Kong, obscenity laws, and Flickr's regional censorship From Berkman alum and Gloval Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon... On May 11th, Oiwan Lam committed what she says was a deliberate act of civil disobedience. Read Story | Discuss 5. Philipine: Stiffer penalty on cyber crimes A neophyte lawmaker from Marikina City has pushed for the passage of a law that will impose stiffer penalties against cybersex crimes after the Philippines landed second in the list of countries with the most number of cases of online prostitution in Asia. Read Story | Discuss Trademarks & Patents 1. Delhi HC restrains Mumbai-based firm from using Disney characters The Delhi High Court has restrained a Mumbai-based company from making or selling products using well-known Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on a plea by global entertainment giant Disney Enterprises Inc. Read Story | Discuss 2. Chinese businesswoman to appeal conviction on trademark infringement Lawyers representing a Chinese businesswoman who was convicted last week of breaches of the Trademark Act, have indicated that they will be challenging her conviction. Read Story | Discuss 3. YouTube copyright fight hinges on whether it controls its content, says US court The first stage in the first copyright infringement suit against video sharing giant YouTube has ended in stalemate. Both sides in the fight applied for an initial judgment against the other, but neither was granted and the case will now proceed further. Read Story | Discuss 4. Malaysia to use education and enforcement to fight piracy Malaysia – where 60% of the software is pirated – is bent on weeding out the culprits who are giving the country a bad name in cyberspace. While some countries are worse off, Malaysia seeks to reduce the piracy rate to as close as possible to the world average of 35%, or lower. Read Story | Discuss 5. Russian copyright wars to continue despite AllofMP3 shutdown AllofMP3.com, the UK's second most popular source for music downloads after iTunes, has been shut down after diplomatic pressure was piled on Russian authorities. MediaServices, the combative firm behind the site, is still selling cut-price music however, meaning the international legal posturing is set to continue. Read Story | Discuss Archives: Dec 06 | Jan 07 | Feb 07 | Mar 07 | Apr 07 | May 07 | June 07 | July 07