GUWAHATI, May 28 - As the threat of children becoming victims of cyber criminals during the lockdown increasing all over the country, the Assam Police is reaching out to the children through Webinar to educate them about the measures they need to take to protect themselves. At the same time, police officers are requesting the children not to indulge in crimes themselves.
The Director General of Police, BJ Mahanta and Additional Director General of Police Harmeet Singh interacted with children from various parts of the State through Webinar on May 8, while, the Inspector General of Police, CID, Surendra Kumar interacted with more than 100 children yesterday.
When contacted by The Assam Tribune, Kumar revealed that at this point of time when the schools are closed and online classes are going on, the threat to the children from cyber criminals has increased manifold and there is need for educating children about the measures needed to be taken to protect themselves.
Kumar said that more and more children are using the internet as they are confined to home and the cyber criminals might try to take advantage of the situation. He said that the criminals may even resort to trafficking by taking advantage of the distress due to the pandemic. He said that the virtual predators usually try to look for targets and if a child gives social media posts saying that he or she is feeling isolated or distressed, such children are mostly targeted. He said that such criminals show sympathy to the children and even offer to give presents to win over their trust. �The criminals, after winning the trust of the children, urge them to send private photos and videos and they often sell the same or blackmail the children with those,� he added.
During the interaction, police officers requested the children not to interact with unknown persons through the cyber space and not to share their personal details and photos. �We told the children that if any unknown person is unusually praising them, that should be treated as the first warning signal. The second warning signal is when someone, after chatting online, asks the children not to share the chat details with parents,� he added.
The IGP said that the children were asked not to indulge in any cyber crime themselves. Very often, children share the messages that they receive without realizing that the messages were not true and can hurt the sentiments of someone. The children were also told that they should not tolerate any crime and they should immediately inform parents or teachers if they face any problem in the cyber space. Anyone facing such problem should also report to the authorities and the evidence should be preserved so that action can be taken against the criminals.
