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Bois Locker Room- A Failure of Education and Law

Anshit Minocha & Divyanshu Dubey, Students, School of Law, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

Introduction

The internet is the universal system of interwoven computer network that capitalises the Internet Protocol Suite to acquaint between networks and devices using this interwoven network. The internet has been providing benefits to the metropolitan for more than 25 years has inveigled the lives of individuals to a great extent, almost every individual around the globe is trying to make productive and worthwhile use of it, the internet has allowed the individuals to revolutionise one’s personal and social relationships completely. However, it can be quarrelled upon that the internet has muddled or separated the individuals from society instead of strengthening them together. The famous quote by J.K. Rowling “The internet has been a boon and a curse for teenagers.” Stands true and there has been a broadcasted increase in the number of crimes happening over the internet.

The internet has acquainted the metropolitan with a new denomination of crime known as “Cybercrimes” which is constituted by “Cyber Bullying and Internet Harassment”. Cyberbullying and Harassment are more conventional among teenagers and adolescents because their wisdom is still at a developing pace making them more assailable to these types of crimes. It is lamentable that at present there are no special statutes in India punishing or criminalising Cyber-Bullying. However, cases of sexual offences against adolescents and children are criminalised under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenders (POSCO) Act, 2012.

Cyberbullying is illustrated as Harassment which develops on and through digital devices; examples of such would be laptops, personal computers, iPods and tablets. Cyberbullying and Cyber harassment can transpire over social media and also on platforms tenacious for gaming purposes. Maharashtra is the state of India where the supreme cases related to Cyberbullying and Cyber Harassment are found. According to statistics, A percentage of 37 adolescents have faced Cyberbullying, 95% of adolescents in the United States are networked and wired on the World Wide Web and a boundless of this admittance the internet using their mobile devices which makes it a familiar and targetable source for Cyber Bullying. 23% of the scholars disclosed that they have been tyrannical to a 3rd person on the World Wide Web. 27% of them expressed participating this from a different person. This data highlights that young Girls are more prone to be fatal from issues of Cyber Crimes; 15 % of adolescent girls have suffered from defamatory and derisive online behaviour.[1] Adolescents of the 21st century are obsessed and disposed of with devices to access social media. However, there is no endurance of cyber literacy and sex education which should be a mandatory aspect of a teenager’s life.


Bois Locker Room: A Critical Analysis

A short while ago, the “Bois Locker Room” case has created an entropy and pandemonium on social media. A group of juveniles aged around 16-17 were part of a secret group created on Instagram with the indistinguishable name. The adolescents in these groups shared exclusive pictures of teenage girls who were minors which followed the process of modifying their pictures and sharing of screenshots which was indeed followed by objectifying, body shaming, demeaning and defaming them. Screenshots showing communication circumstancing in this group was shared on social media with huge criticism and evaluation by a large number of accounts showing distaste, hatred, dislike and revulsion, this was followed by the local police taking cognisance of the matter owing to the detention of the person who was responsible for creating the group.

The incident of Bois Locker Room subsisted of juveniles studying in extrusive schools of the National Capital Territory- Delhi, and it was observed that they steadily and constantly used the platform to embody, objectify and demean minor women which encompassed their classmates too. The local police after registration and recording of the FIR have impounded the mobile devices of the juveniles, two of the juveniles are languishing in custody. The gist of Bois Locker Room controversy emphasises the repercussions of the #MeToo movement which highlighted and pointed out the biasedness and roughness faced by the Women even in the matured and refined the 21st century.

A congruous and obligatory Writ probing for immediate and urgent detention of the members of the same group has been filed before the Delhi High Court which is also requisitioning further investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and taking cognisance of this quarrel. In the meantime, Suo moto cognisance of the matter was taken by the Delhi Commission for Women.[2]

Also, A raw development made in the case shows that the communication which happened on Snapchat revealing rape perils and blackmails given by the user handle a juvenile girl organised "Siddharth” by creating a counterfeit profile. The investigation made Cyber Cell conceded that there was no arrangement of any sexual assaults.[3]

The presence and survival of the predominant principles and standards of “masculinity” assuredly does not pardon accountability and guilt for the offences pledged by the members of the Bois Locker Room group. However, how the principle of “ Feminism” is understood and interpreted today draws the invalid inference, instead of exhausting for equal rights for both men and women, women are being asked more rights which is a debacle for the men because the principle of Feminism was incorporated and promoted with equal rights for both.


Sex Education and Reliability of Juvenile Justice Act

The sex education as the name suggests is sort of Course or Programme with regards to sexuality and taboo that is mainly given to the adolescents (aged between 10 – 19 years). The ultimate goal of this course is to spread awareness about sexuality and sexual rights to the adolescents appropriately and systematically. It maximises the awareness of the child regarding his/her own body. In India, there are 253 million adolescents who form a significant part of the Indian Population. It comprises 21% of the total population of India that require such education to spread the proper awareness about sexuality among them. As it has been rightly stated by Benjamin Spock “Sex education, including its spiritual aspect, should be a part of broad health and moral education”.


Adolescence Education Programme 

In 2005, the government of India launched this Programme in collaboration with NCERT, NACO and UN. The ultimate objective of this course was to provide accurate and age-appropriate cultural education; personality development, and advanced skills. This was implemented across the states with the help of SCERTs (State Council of Education Research and Training). In response to this measure of the government, 13 states immediately banned the implementation of this Programme on the ground that it is “against Indian Culture”. The accentuate political figures raised their concerns regarding the Programme and held that such Programme could indulge adolescents in sexual profligacy. Therefore, the sex education has never been delivered that well across the nation and that is why there have been several instances in which the adolescents got involved in heinous sex crimes. The best recent example is the ‘Bois Locker Room Case’ in which several adolescents form a group in the Instagram – a social media platform and are sharing nudity in that group.


Increasing Heinous Sex Crime by Adolescents

The first instance of an adolescent committing sexual offence was “Nirbhaya Rape Case” in the year 2012. In which a minor aged 16 years committed the offence rape conjointly with other four accused. The Nirbhaya case leads the government to introduce an amendment in the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The amendment allowed the 16-18 years old adolescents to be tried as an adult for heinous crimes like rape and murder. The amendment came up as deterrence for the adolescents but, a thoughtful concern was posed by the report of National Crime Report Bureau that quoted “In the year 2016, the adolescents who were arrested for the crime of murder and rape, 76% of them was aged 16 years or above[4]. Thereby, the report raised a serious concern about the efficacy of the Juvenile Justice Act. The report reflects the issue “Whether the amendment in Juvenile Justice Act succeeded in spreading enough deterrence among the adolescents”. Now the case of ‘Bois Locker Room’ is still another such act which raises the same concern on JJ act as well as the autonomous concern on the education of the adolescents that “Whether the children are getting proper sex education”. Although sex education is given through divergent means like special classes or two limited chapters in Biology textbook, that does not provide the exhaustive awareness of the phenomenon to the students.

Therefore, reforms need to be brought in the field of education. The proper education needs to be given to all the adolescents across the country to let them gather awareness regarding sex and sexuality.


Conclusion

It has been appropriately paraphrased that “Necessity is the mother of all inventions”, this quote is very much applicable to the concerns discussed above. There is the necessity for the reformations in the field of education because the present educational framework of the nation is not providing enough education to adolescents about sexuality and taboo. The effective and adequate way of sex education can be that it shall be made as a part of the syllabus and there shall be regular classes for the same rather than the occasional classes. The goal of the classes should be to illuminate the genders to respect each other, to combat the taboo and to eradicate the skyrocketing cases of sex crimes especially the crimes committed by adolescents like the recent case of ‘Bois Locker Room’.

Our nation is known for being one of the most unsafe places for the women; thereby, the education of consent during sexual intercourse is a must to improve the social condition of the nation. Last but not least; the sex education shall not be the duty of the teacher only but, rather it shall be a dovetail of both the teacher and the parents because it is the parents with whom the child spends his/her most of the time.

 

[1]Justin, 11 Facts about Cyber Bullying,DoSomething( May 9th ,2020, 10:50 PM), https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying.

[2]Radhika Roy, Bois Locker Room Incident: Plea Filed Before Delhi HC For CBI/SIT Probe[Read Petition], Live Law(May 10th,2020, 4:33 PM), https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/plea-filed-before-delhi-hc-seeking-for-cbisit-investigation-into-bois-locker-room-incident-156468.

[3]Pramod Sharma, Bois Locker Room case: Delhi Police claims juvenile girl created fake account suggested sexual assault plan, ZeeNews(May 11th, 2020,5:54PM), https://zeenews.india.com/india/bois-locker-room-case-delhi-police-claims-juvenile-girl-created-fake-account-suggested-sexual-assault-plan-2282576.html

[4] Press Trust of India, Over 40,000 juveniles caught in 2017, 72 per cent in 16-18 age group: NCRB data, The Indian Express (May 16th,2020, 9:35PM), https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/oct/22/over-40000-juveniles-caught-in-2017-72-per-cent-in-16-18-age-group-ncrb-data-2051445.html

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