Social Media

Social media connects us through many forms such as blogs, video, podcasts etc. On a personal level, social media enables us to connect with friends and family around the world, it enables us to stay up to date on what’s happening in the world, it's entertaining and it lets you develop your interest. On a professional level, it helps in gaining information, and helps you to gain a broader knowledge about your profession and field. On a company level, it helps in advertising, feedback, to gain a brand image, brand names, and it helps you in searching for employees or a job. Those are the efficacious uses of social media, yet what of the adverse side of social media? 

It's important to be aware that even on such a large platform, the morally ill is always present. Most harm comes from cyber bullying, harassment, child predator, threats, stalking, fake identity or profile, illegal transactions, hacking and fraud. These may have long-lasting effects on the victim's mentality, stress, anxiety, and in the worst cases, depression. Furthermore, there have been factual cases of suicide caused by cyberbullying, one known example being Desmond Daniel Amofah, better known online as Etika.

Cybercrimes or social media crimes are counted by complaints and reports. Based on hindustantime.com,  cybercrime has doubled in 2021 compared to 2020. It has received 19,023 complaints in 2021 in the category of frauds, sending vulgar messages, email hacking and data stealing. These are only reported crimes, what about  crimes that aren't reported? 

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the big 3 platforms that have the highest number of crimes,  consisting of sexual images or videos for extortion and creating fake accounts to post vulgar comments or  harassment. Police even introduced new sectors for “sexortion” and “friendship fraud”. These crimes are worrying for minor victims, since these days children have the freedom to access social media. 

Most of those crimes, especially harassment, aren't taken seriously by some people. Victims of those cybercrimes, especially minors on social media, tend to be confused on how to ask for help, how to protect and defend themselves when facing them. Sadly some people still take the crimes lightly and those activities will eventually go unpunished due to the ignorance of people. This individual report has the hopes to create awareness to society that social media can be the next platform for crime.