How do you define a safe internet?

The internet or World Wide Web is the ultimate democratic tool through which people voice their opinions. Taking a simple example, a girl comes to a dance show and wins it. One opinion might be,"wow! She dances so well. Another might be“Ahh! What a fat whore she is!” What is leading to these opinions? What is the starting point of these opinions? Women are being subject to harassment online and the web is infested with faceless attackers. These people have the wrong ideas which is why women are subject to such scrutiny and commentary. We need to change that. How do you define a safe internet?

 What will you say if someone asks you to define a safe internet?

A platform where calling, trolling, persistent stalking and shaming to outright sexual and death threat does not occur might be. And Do you think the only solution to this is imposing, creating or developing rules against cybercrime? If yes, then give it a second thought.

A safer internet cannot be defined in absolute terms. But let us try to understand the unsafe internet. Is it the platform which is a virtual treasure trove of information or the mindset of people wringing it responsible for cybercrimes?

Through this article, we will take you to our understanding of this starting point.

As a student my personal belief is that lot of rules could be imposed, in fact are being imposed to make the internet a safe place. Which is a good thing and should happen. But online harassment is still happening. This means the actual problem is something else which we need to deal with first.

The problem is the mentality of these online criminals. Their mind has no direction. They are not aware of the damage they are doing to the society. They think what they are doing is right. Internet is a constructive space and we must protect the same. However, we need to guard against those who are using it for criminal activities, harassing women, stealing data and even money. So as a start, we need more conversations and workshops and trainings to make people aware of consequences of online crime. These dialogues can not only educate and equip people with information but also provide them a deterrent to those who were exploring the dark internet.

The only way they can get the right direction is the right kind of education. And this education my friends are the starting point of an opinion. Education not only means the formal studies, we do in our schools and colleges. It is also the enlightening experience, we get all through our lives.

What this article is conveying is education leads to a social awareness which changes the perspective and opinions of people.  Which in turn leads to the reduction of these crimes.

Thus, the future of safety online is imparting the right education.

Learn good, think good. Be aware, be safe.

Simarpreet Kaur is a student of ARCH College of design, Jaipur and this effort is a part of Google India and SheThePeople initiative Digital Trust Dialogues across colleges in India.