Bois Locker Room Controversy

Social media is abuzz with conversations on an Instagram group named ‘Bois locker room’ which was being used by some Delhi teens to share objectionable pictures of minor girls and make lewd comments.  

Brief Facts of the Case

1. A group of South Delhi teens (mostly schoolboys) create an Instagram group chat called Bois Locker Room to share photos of women (many of them underage). The group involves discussions objectifying women and graphic sexual language.
2. Screenshots of the chats are leaked and are posted online by some of the victims, blowing the lid on the controversy. The chats had morphed pictures and also derogatory and explicit comments on women and their bodies.
3.  The screenshots from Bois Locker Room instantly go viral and become a talking point on social media.
4.  As the chats are exposed, the members of the group chat retaliate and threaten to leak nude photographs of the women who outed them.
5. The Delhi Commission for Women takes suo moto cognizance of the case on Monday and sends notices to Delhi Police and Instagram. Asks them to file a report on action taken by May 8.
6. Delhi Police Cyber Cell files registered an FIR under Sections 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and Sections 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the IT Act.
7. On 05/05/2020, a 15-year-old boy from a prominent school is taken into custody by Delhi Police Cyber Cell.
8.  The devices used to engage in the offensive, vulgar communication have also been seized from the identified group members.

Arguments in favour of the prosecution

1. The accused have violated the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India which is a fundamental right as they have leaked the objectionable photos of the girls which were available with them already.
2. Thus, the accused have to further tried for committing offences under Section 354, 354 A, 354C, 500, 504, 506 of IPC and 66E and 67 B of the IT Act and POCSO.
3. The arrest and apprehension of the accused is a preventive move in order to prevent them from committing offences as heinous as gang rapes and other different violent crimes against women as the cats in the group were plans in order to commit rape.
4. The misogynistic nature of the chats were of serious nature and were a reflection of their intent which is the motivation behind committing a sexual or violent crime towards a woman.

Arguments in against the prosecution

1. The chats were conducted in an encrypted closed cyber space wherein the members discussed about planning to commit such offences. The chats were never intended to go public and the planning to conduct an offence is  not punishable by law unless an overt act towards its preparation and commission is made.
2. This cardinal principle of the criminal jurisprudence has been ignored in the said case.
3. It is also ignored that there are other such forums, chat rooms, groups available on various mediums on social media and alike platforms in which people pay in order to become part of them. But now only one such group has come under the radar of the authorities.
4. Various applications are there which are a potential source of giving boost to prostitution in the cyber space as well as in physical arena but the menace of prostitution is being ignored by the authortites. The focus is on preventing men from turning into potential sex offenders but at the same time the menace of women turning towards prostitution is ignored which is also illegal.
5. Also there are online groups such as girls locker room in which content is shared for sexualising men and using homophobic and misogynistic language. The non prosecution of the women administrators and members of these groups fail to transpire confidence in the criminal justice delivery system and raises serious concerns over the provision of the fundamental rights relating to right to equality under Constitution.
6. The law does  not recognize the women to be perpetrators of sexually violent crimes and are considered to be victims. This is due to lack of gender neutrality in the law.
7. Also, the same application instagram is being used rampantly by females for indulging in activities such as soliciting and online prostitution but they are being allowed by the platform owners as well as cyber authorities.
8. Moreover, the school bound children are being tried and treated as seasoned and hardened sexual offenders.
9. There is a mandated but not legally recognizable moral policing by the authorities where they decide for the citizens and try to regulate what they can or can not do on their own private cyber space.

Conclusions and Suggestions

In order to rectify existing regime so that such incidents are not repeated in future, there are few suggestions that are as follows:-

1. There is a strong need for change in the informatics and cyber law of the country where strict provisions for the regulation of content on the cyber space are to be introduced.
2. The breach of the protocols should be subject to imprisonment and heavy fines.
3. The minimum age to register on platforms such as instagram should be increased to 18 instead of present 13 and KYC documents with mandatory date of birth to be used for registration on all social media platforms.
4. A detailed questionnaire to be mandatorily filled by the a person who is desirous of creating a social media profile which relates to ethics, online behavioral norms, mannerism and conduct on the cyber space.
5. The online aggregators and the social media houses should be allowed to operate in the cyber space of a country only when they clean up their content so that there are no lascivious, sexually overt contents and advertisements displayed on the sites and groups wherein such contents is circulated should be banned for life with members of these groups not being able to join the platforms again as there social security details are being captured with the website already.
6. The websites where such social security details are captured must before hand convince the concerned governments that the details which would be provided to them are fully secure in nature and safe from threats such as data leak.

 

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