Click to play videoMaking friends and finding love in real life is passé: the Internet is where people socialise.
Join a social networking website and make friends with total strangers all around the world. Adnan Patrawala, a 16-year-old Mumbai resident, made friends with three persons on Orkut. The ‘friends’ kidnapped him for ransom and murdered him when the police got close to them.
Social networking sites have got bad publicity recently for slanderous comments and communities on political leaders and women and the utter freedom their members get in portraying false identities.
Are social networking sites crossing the limit or is it that people are misusing them? CNN-IBN’s Anuradha SenGupta asked this on a special show called Rules Of The Orkut Age.
The panel comprised Rashmi Bansal, editor of campus magazine Jam, clinical psychologist Seema Hingorani, lawyer Mohit Kapoor, Ashish Patil, General Manager of MTV India, and Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Sales and Operations, for Google India.
The good, bad and ugly
Don’t shoot the Internet, for it’s just the messenger, said Rao. “The Internet is an information medium, and information contributes to learning and understanding. Our company and others who participate it in the Internet believe that it has been largely been used for good. There will always be bad elements but it is the job of all of us in society to do what we can to make sure that it continues to be safe tool,” said Rao.
People are free to assume identities and set up groups on networking sites. To some that may seem extreme liberty. As Bansal explained: website “users are free with their emotions and opinions, and they do not even take it seriously. But somebody who is a new visitor to a website and comes across a community called ‘I Love Dawood’ may actually think that the members are fans of Dawood Ibrahim (the gangster) and perhaps terrorists too”.
MTV has selected Orkut as its Youth Icon of the Year—Patil said his company takes pride in conferring the award to the website.
“MTV takes pride in reflecting not just young minds think but also in leading them. Our research pointed out that for young people today it is not just personalities who impact their thinking. The need to belong, the need to stay connected and the need to stand out in the crowd were fulfilled by Orkut,” he said.
“Our research showed that the youth are no longer influenced by people but by films, technology and personalities and events, and that is where Orkut came and qualified well,” said Patil.
No time for the real world?
Crime and slander aside many parents complain their children spend too much time on networking sites. A guest said her daughter loved sports but now she spent more time on Orkut than outdoors.
Hingorani, the psychologist, said she understood parents’ worry. “I know bright teenagers who chat for nine hours to 10 hours. When the Adnan kidnapping case occurred some 30 parents called me and said they were concerned for their children. There have been fights in my clinic between teens and their parents,” Hingorani said.
Parents blamed TV for spoiling their kids once and now they blame the Internet and networking sites. “People said TV has made us couch potatoes, but on networking sites people also make friends with enthusiasts and like-minded people. Friendship again is a tool but it depends on how one uses it,” said Patil.
It’s not just parents who believe their children are wasting their time—many companies have blocked Orkut and other networking sites because they thought employees were wasting working hours.
Lawyer Kapoor thought the ban or blocking had “some good uses”, but CNN-IBN’s Tech Show host Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan said it had none.
“Mohit (Kapoor) has cyber lawyers in his office and within two minutes they will figure out a proxy. I was blocked from using Orkut in our office but that didn’t stop me from using it every day,” said Radhakrishnan.
So does one need tougher rules to “regulate” networking site?
“We have got all the rules. As a government, I think we over regulate. There is also the need for the government to implement them in the right particular way. There is slow awareness coming in and law enforcement agencies are using these sites to gather information and investigate crimes,” Kapoor said.
Will Internet companies cooperate with the Government? Google does, said Rao. “We take criminal activity very seriously. If there is something that’s illegal or it’s a violation of our community standards, we will cooperate with authorities to make sure that it is stopped.”
The panel believed that not laws and the Government but caution and safety are the best regulation. As Rao said: “The Internet and social networking are powerful tools. The keep people engaged but safety is a team effort.”
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