Social Media for Abuse

I just read this article which made me sick to my stomach.

The story is as follows:

When she was 14, she met a guy on Internet. The boy was a couple of years older, and convinced her to strip for him on webcam. The girl was in love, and believe him to be too. She obeyed his request.

As soon as the stripping was done, the boy ended all contact. Some time later, the video with the girl stripping shows up on Internet. Without her consent.

Her friend turned their back to her, and she ended up having to relocate and change her name.

Now, I use the Internet almost exclusively as a source of information, connection with friends and what gets me mad is a lack of education about  teaching  kids about practicing safe Internet behavior. With the interwebs increasingly being used for criminal activities, fraud and other illegal stuff, why not talk to them, and teach them on ways to protect themselves online.

People put their personal info on facebook, orkut and other social media sites with wanton disregard. When you are young, you lack the experience and understanding to use the new technologies. This is exactly the reason why the Adnan Patrawala case happened and I am sure that if we do not take more precautions more cases will start to surface.  Young people are more vulnerable and this shows how wrong things have and can become. People have complete conversations using "scraps" on orkut which can help any stalker get info to use to gain any advantage. Security 101 should be a part of the curriculum.

loss

My aunt died on Monday evening. Actually she was murdered and its featured in the mumbai mirror. It was totally senseless and since then i have been in a state of shock. Nothing was stolen from the home, so it definitely rules out robbery as a motive, and the cops do not have any leads yet. My dad and her husband have been best friends for a long time and so have I and her kids. I cannot even imagine what they and Pinge kaka must be feeling right now. Talking to someone in the afternoon and coming back home to seeing her lying in a pool of blood with her throat slit. What do you say after such a horrific event? She was a kind person, always welcoming us with great gusto and talking about her in the past sense just does not feel right. Its this void in my heart that I am trying to understand what could have caused someone commit such a heartless crime. I look over my orkut and other social network profiles and see both of her children smiling and it pains me to think of whats going on in their minds right now. In all my years of knowing her, I do not remember a single instance when I do not remember her not having a smile on her face. I wish I had something more to say, but its just too painful to think of it. I hope the killer/s will be found and be brought to swift justice. Meanwhile I just pray that her soul ends up in a happy place.