Social Media has brought a revolution in the human society. The 21th century has been described as the age of social media. Social Media came up in a big way and its influence on people is very powerful. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp are increasingly awashed with obscene reports in words, photographs and videos. The advent of the internet and new media, characterized with social networking sites such as Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp etc., has revolutionized communication globally. The power of social media messages rests majorly on its ability to instantly and simultaneously reach a wide, diverse audience, possibly shaping their thinking and their way of life. Everyone can observe ruins of good manners and prestigious values by social media. Politeness, nobility and chastity have become ‘No Go Areas’ while theft, massacre, lawlessness, nakedness’ and obscenity are the order of the day. Obscenity in this context is the outrageous, offensive and indecent depiction of words or offensive images of victims of violence, murder, kidnapping or sex related details or a public act which depraves or corrupts the mind and which appeals to the prurient interests or which is against the acceptable social moral standards would be called obscene and vulgar. In recent time, the media has played a major role in promoting obscenity by way of semi-nude ads, video-graphy, news in the form of soft-porn and much more. They are certainly putting at stake the values of an entire generation just for a little more circulation, readership, viewership and a little more money. In India, there are laws on obscenity; Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sections 292, 293 and 294 deal with the offence of obscenity. One can find a vague definition of what constitutes obscenity in Section 292, which says that any content shall be deemed to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest, or if its effect tends to deprave and corrupt persons likely to read, see or hear the content. This section prohibits the sale or publication of any obscene pamphlet, book, paper, painting, and other such materials. Meanwhile, Section 293 criminalises the sale or distribution of obscene objects to anyone who is under the age of 20, or an attempt to do so. Although it is a bailable offence. Section 294 prohibits obscene acts and songs in public spaces. The maximum punishment for the person convicted under this charge is three-month jail and a fine. With the advent of the digital age, laws were made to criminalize obscene conduct on the internet also. Section 67 of the Information Technology Act says that anyone who publishes or transmits obscene material in electronic form can be punished. It can be defined as any picture, photograph, figure, article, write up, video, etc. or a public act which depraves or corrupts the mind and which appeals to the prurient interests or which is against the acceptable social moral standards would be called obscene and vulgar. There have been various instances when law enforcement agencies have taken action against the social media influencers or random people who have posted objectionable content on social media and liberal feminist section of the society have often criticized government actions on pretext of that law on obscenity is vague. On the other hand the content creators on the pretext of freedom of expressions are seen creating obscene content for cheap publicity, for few Likes, Comments on their posts. The main aim of these content creators is the income from the viewership of their content. We often come across the news about obscenity from Kashmir, where obscene content makes it to social media in form of pictures, Videos and Advertisements. Many such news have been viral and came into the notice of public, after public outrage on such videos, pictures law enforcement agencies was seen taking swift action. In 2020 Police booked a youth from Pampore area of Pulwama district, acting on a complaint by a woman alleging that some miscreants have been blackmailing her and have uploaded her obscene pictures on social media, police had arrested an accused from Drangbal, Pampore. (KNS November 4, 2020). In another unfortunate act Two teachers from Nambla Uri area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district had chatted on social media site Facebook with a girl living outside Valley. The video chat is obscene and sexual in nature and that video went viral on social media, both the teachers were suspended. I don’t require to explain the importance of the role of a teacher in society. There are many more such incidents that made it to the state or national media for all the wrong reasons but such incidents have increased since last decades due to easy access of internet. Such obscene videos on social media have very adverse effects on the youth and this is the Kashmir with almost 100% religious population (96.41% Muslim, 2.45% Hindu and 0.81% Sikh). The concerns have been voiced about the usage of social networking sites. However, one major issue that society is facing is the changing mindset of the youth due to these social networking sites. The adolescence stage shapes outlook, personality and moulds into what they will be in future. So when they grow up in the world where obscene content is available without any proper censorship. It is bound to have a profound impact on the psyche of entire generation. I am concerned about the obscene content that has found its way to the timeline of young generation in Kashmir. In the ‘Land of Saints’ we are witnessing younger generation getting addicted to pornography and other obscene content. During COVID-19 lockdown electronic gadgets with internet have become a necessity as our education system went online and many cases have surfaced where children have in contact with the obscene content in the form of advertisement etc.
Parents find themselves helpless in these situations as they cannot keep a parental observation on what content is been consumed by their child , also in lockdown the apps like Clubhouse got quite a lot of hype and so did it in the Kashmir but many users in Kashmir gave it up soon due to increase in vulgarity and objectionable broadcasts on the app. One of the user of Clubhouse Javaid Iqbal who is a teacher by profession from Sangrama Baramulla recalls how clubhouse had become a platform for meaningful discussions, informative broadcasts during lockdown and since 2021 it has now become a den of vulgarity and is destroying the younger generations of the Kashmir. One more such user Mir Asif Aabis who is a promising Urdu Poet from Ponch district of J&K shares similar kind of opinions, Aabis has been using Social Media for poetry broadcasts and he is well established name among the poets of the country but Aabis no more uses clubhouse due to the increase in vulgarity and nuisance by the poor young brainless fellows, Aabis feels sorry for those young fellows as he wants to see them achieving greatly but alas! Wrong use of social media just destroyed them all. What a person finds obscene may not be the same with the next person of same age, gender and social background, the import of this is that obscenity is dynamic and relative. Depending on one’s religious, cultural and moral perspectives, what I’m saying is that obscenity is regarded differently. Some individuals are sensitive and tend to be easily affected or depraved by media contents. The issues of immorality and obscenity have always been of great concerns to society from time immemorial, perhaps as a result of religious beliefs and teachings, to such extent that the society frowns disciplinarily and punitively, at immorality and obscenity including the dissemination of such by publications and or media, Now this brings us back to the issue of regulating social media, age limits and how to use social media, we can’t deny the fact that social media has its own advantages, but social media contents should be regulated and obscene materials should be controlled It is surprising that obscene publications still find their ways to our phones, computer system, on-line and by various social media and the appropriate authorities find nothing to prevent these in the public interest and morality. It remains a great concern why the appropriate authorities have not succeeded in blocking both local and international persons and their sources from publication of obscenity. Every good thing is believed to have its disadvantages. So is the case of the social media. As acceptable as the innovation is, there have been unwarranted and excessive purging of unwanted contents. Abuse of the social media privileges need to be monitored. Social media owners and the government have a big role to play, in ensuring sanity in the social media. The social media need to pay attention to their user policies and the terms of usage. Governments should be encouraged to promote good behavior on the cyber space by activating campaigns against abuse on the social media. Also, it is pertinent to advice that campaigns against wrong use of the social media should be launched globally. The effort of institutions such as the amnesty international in enrolling volunteers to run a social media patrol is commendable. Such projects should be brought on board so as to enlighten users on the ills of bad usage. The dispute resolution platform should be well equipped with personnel to resolve reports of abuse and intellectual property infringement. The governments should not be left out in ensuring sanity in the social media.
(The author is a freelancer and a social activist . The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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