Author : Sameer Patil

Expert Speak Digital Frontiers
Published on Dec 05, 2022
To ensure that the youth become effective ‘Digital Citizens’ of India, cybersecurity awareness focusing on digital civics and cyber hygiene needs to be imparted
Nurturing Responsible Young Netizens through Digital Civics The digital domain in India has undergone massive expansion since the introduction of internet services in India in the 1980s. With more than 700 million users, India constitutes the second-largest internet user base globally, after China. Many of these are first-generation users who lack an understanding of cyber hygiene—knowledge of practices to protect themselves on the internet. A related dimension of this is the lack of ‘digital civics’—behaving responsibly in cyberspace. This deficiency of digital civics and cyber hygiene amplifies the risks and harms inherent in ever-advancing digital technology. Malicious actors like cybercriminals and saboteurs capitalise on this gap to perpetuate their activities.

The deficiency of digital civics and cyber hygiene amplifies the risks and harms inherent in ever-advancing digital technology.

Today, digital technology defines our everyday lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has only reinforced this technological dependence. However, this dependence has particularly affected children and youngsters. Stuck at home due to the pandemic and lockdowns, they were forced to shift to online learning and ‘work from home’ modes. As a result, they have spent excessive time on digital devices and the internet. In the case of many children, this increased time on the internet has been spent without adequate parental supervision. Though cyberspace and digital tools have opened many opportunities for these young netizens, it has also raised many security and safety challenges. With the unprecedented global health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, malicious actors found an opportunity to step up their activities by targeting vulnerable groups like young internet users. Therefore, it is no surprise that the pandemic saw a rise in online scams and phishing, misinformation and online trolling, and most importantly, cyberbullying, continuing the trend of earlier years. Women were particularly severely hit by this upsurge in cyber offences. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there was a rise in cybercrimes against women—a 110-percent increase in the publication of sexually explicit content from 2018 to 2021 in India. Likewise, cases of cyberstalking and bullying of women rose from 739 in 2018 to 1,172 in 2021. Even more worrying was the pendency percentage of cases at the court level: 96 percent of the cases for the publication or transmission of obscene material and 97.3 percent in the case of cyberstalking and bullying. Three major recent cases of targeting women—Liberal Doge, Sulli Deals, and Bulli Bai, have demonstrated the severity of this threat. In these cases, the accused, many of them students (between the age group of 18-23 years targeted women from a specific community, by putting up their photos online for a fake auction. As expected, these incidents not only sparked indignation but also a discussion about cyber hygiene and digital civics among youngsters. Many in civil society highlighted the importance of academic institutions in imparting knowledge and instilling a sense of digital citizenship among young internet users. This misuse of social and digital media to harass and attack an individual’s dignity, especially women, reveals a dangerous trend plaguing the digital space. These incidents are a testimony of the loopholes against the protection and safety of people, especially in cyberspace and raise a more alarming question on the absence of awareness on digital civics amongst the young population of India.

As the digital age and the demographic dividend opportunity coincide, it becomes imperative that the young population of India is trained and taught about cyber hygiene and digital civics.

Therefore, as the digital age and the demographic dividend opportunity coincide, it becomes imperative that the young population of India is trained and taught about cyber hygiene and digital civics. Cyber hygiene is awareness about what to do and not do in cyberspace including the internet and social media platforms. It refers to the steps and practices undertaken to ensure the safety of internet users and protect their data from cyber criminals and other rogue elements. Digital civics refers to ethical and responsible civic behaviour, citizenship, or democratic engagement in the digital domain—one which recognises the critical role played by every individual user in making online spaces safe for everyone. It plays a complementary role to the steps taken by government agencies to enhance cybersecurity. Almost a decade ago in 2014, during an expert consultation on cybersecurity, justice, and governance co-hosted by the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, Jane Holl Lute, Commissioner, and President and CEO of the Council on Cyber Security and former US Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security, had highlighted that the primary focus of efforts to enhance cybersecurity should be on cyber hygiene. She noted that proper cyber hygiene practices could help mitigate 80-90 percent of all known threats.

Efforts undertaken

The government has taken several steps to address this challenge. In 2014, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) approved the ‘Information Security Education and Awareness Project Phase II,’. One of the objectives of this project is spreading mass awareness through direct and indirect means about information security. Under this project, MeitY developed a website and devised separate guidelines and e-books for all the stakeholders—academics, general users, and government employees to focus on educating about hate crimes, cyberstalking, morphing, doxing, online trolling, cyber flashing, digital parenting, etc. Similarly in 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs released a handbook for adolescents/students on cyber safety. In 2020, the Central Board of Secondary Education in collaboration with the Cyber Peace Foundation developed a cyber safety manual for high school students to help them develop safe and healthy online habits. The availability of such educational material for creating awareness of cybersecurity, cyber hygiene, and information security notwithstanding, India lacks a comprehensive course/curriculum for students, especially in the post-pandemic world, where their usage of digital devices has increased exponentially. While government agencies take measures to step up their capacity to deal with online crimes, hate, stalking, and bullying cases, their efforts must be complemented by inculcating a sense of ‘digital civics’ among the younger population who constitute two-thirds of internet users in India. Therefore, creating a mandatory digital civics programme for schools and colleges is necessary to help young people develop cyber hygiene and online civic sense. This will enable them to understand the importance of responsible behaviour to protect themselves and others.

While government agencies take measures to step up their capacity to deal with online crimes, hate, stalking, and bullying cases, their efforts must be complemented by inculcating a sense of ‘digital civics’ among the younger population

The proposed private member’s bill titled “Digital Civics Bill, 2022”<1> aims to inculcate a sense of responsible behaviour among the younger citizens in cyberspace and social media platforms which will promote digital safety through mandatory teaching of digital civics courses in schools and colleges. The course (to be prepared by a committee of experts from the field of cyber education and digital ethics) will define and elaborate on ‘digital citizenship’ and the three components associated with it: Digital skills, digital identity, and digital empowerment and agency. As our reliance on the internet grows, cybersecurity awareness focusing on digital civics and cyber hygiene is the best way to participate safely online and raise a responsible netizenry. To reap the benefits of the young demography in the digital age, it becomes essential for the young population in India to become effective ‘Digital Citizens’ of India. The proposed “Digital Bill, 2022” intends to promote this.
<1> The bill has been proposed by Priyanka Chaturvedi, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and will be tabled in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament.
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Author

Sameer Patil

Sameer Patil

Dr Sameer Patil is Director, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation.  His work focuses on the intersection of technology and national ...

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Priyanka Chaturvedi

Priyanka Chaturvedi

Priyanka Chaturvedi is an Indian politician serving as Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra and Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena. She is a regular ...

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Aradhana Gupta

Aradhana Gupta

Aradhana holds an academic degree in anthropology and specialises in social impact public policy research and stakeholder management. She has worked with both government and ...

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