Free Mobile App's makes sexting easier for youngsters

By Prabalta Rijal

A ninth grade student Raju KC from Chabahill, was ecstatic when he got his first android phone, now he could chat and watch hot videos, which he couldn't with his old phone. He, had been pestering his parents for a new phone ever since he had seen what his buddies were up to on their phones. Chatting is a normal phenomenon, and with the dawn of private messengers, communicating with pals across the globe has become ten times easier than it was just five years ago.

Cheap GSM internet access and 3G facilities by mobile service providers like Nepal Telecom and Ncell and free mobile phone messengers like WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat and Hike, have made getting intimate with someone, virtually, easier. The young especially between the age of 15-21 in Nepal has made it easier for youngsters to share their nude,next to nude photographs and erotic videos with their so called chat buddies across the country and the world over.

" I like chatting with guys on WeChat and WhatsApp, because we can send each other pictures, without the risk of  getting caught," said Sarita (name changed), who just recently completed her class ten.

According to another one of her friends, it's a normal leisure activity, its better than sleeping with guys for real. "We don't get sexually transmitted diseases, or get pregnant this way. Its safe and risk free, and we don't lose our virginity, either," they added. Though this might sound really cool, this is just one side of the story, what we need to understand is that there are dangers, far beyond pregnancy that are involved with sex chats, because most of the people these youngsters are talking to are mere strangers, who are most likely to be sex predators and cyber bullies.

 Infact, according to an online study by a social media site SKOUT in 2011, a relatively high percentage of its users were aged 17 and under. So, they started a more protected service for minors. But their problems didn't stop here, adults posing as teens were found to be entering this new site and trying to connect with underage victims. In 2011 three children – ages 12, 13, and 15 – were raped by adults met via this online app, each of whom had posed as a new teen friend. After learning of these crimes Skout suspended its youth service, until more safety measures could be put in place.

This is just one example there are thousands of teenagers and minors who are becoming more and more vulnerable to sex-predators and cyber bullies who threaten to use their images and videos if they don't comply with everything that is being said.

In one of my investigations into this issue, I came across a 19 year-old-boy, from Pulchowk, who I met in the ICQ chat room, 'Looking for Love', after talking to me for a while he sent me a video link on my chat window with photographs he claimed as his. After talking to him for nearly two months in a row, without revealing my true identity, there were a few things he told me, in an effort to prove to me that it's safe talking to him. He spoke about keeping numerous chat girlfriends and gradually asked them for explicit photos of themselves before luring them onto skype for an erotic webcam session.  According to him the girls sent him their pictures, because he sent them his photographs too. "It's a matter of trust, I trust you that's why I sent you my link," said Flein654 (Chat name), in an effort to earn my trust.

 After spending nearly two months trying to extract information from him and four more guys to no avail, I met a really weird character online, This 19 year old engineering student had started sex chatting from the age of sixteen and apart from trying to get intimate with strangers, this kid, took a real video of his real life girlfriend and used it against her for sexual pleasures. "I kept using this video I had made, to blackmail her, it was cool because she could never say no. I didn't realise that she would try to kill herself because of this," he said.

From what he told, this scribe, his 17-year-old girlfriend, after four months of being bullied into sleeping with him, got so fed up of the ordeal, and was so scared the video might actually get leaked, that she tried to kill herself by consuming an overdose of para-cetamol tablets. Luckily for her, her parents took her to the emergency unit at Patan Hospital and she came out of the entire ordeal a little shaken up.  "After this incident I deleted the video, I just wanted a little bit of extra fun but I didn't realise she would take such a step," he said, before adding that despite this incident he is still addicted to the came chat rooms where his fetish for sex began. "I will never blackmail anyone, but I dont ever think I can get over this," he said.

This young lady was lucky that she got away unscathed and this is just an example of how vulnerable youngsters are to cyber bullies who use their images and videos against them.

Though there are cyber laws in place monitoring the cyber world is next to impossible to monitor everyone's actions on the web. "The rise of mobile phone applications like WhatsApp and WeChat, to name a few has made monitoring minors even tougher," said former inspector of Police Manoj Timilsina, who had served in the Crime Division at Hanuman Dhoka for approximately three years before his retirement.

 And like the saying goes with each good comes an evil, so it is important for youngsters to be aware of the dangers lurking in the shadows of cyberspace.