Changing trends in primary online usage and networked media Initially internet was used to access primarily for information gathering. Now, it has shifted to provide user engagement and communication building. With more youngsters on the forefront, recent data suggest 25-49 years olds are the most addictive users of social media.

All these incidents are not so isolated anymore as they are becoming more mainstream as we speak and need urgent redressal from the authorities. While the rise of social media is quite known all around and dominates in the recent developments in cyber safety specifically for young people, there are other aspects that effectively pose a great challenge to online safety.

Cyber Threats to Youth One of the reasons why internet threats are looming around the youth is the recent shift to online schooling and course learning, the use of educational apps, and the increased use of social media have been found to pose threats to online safety. This has inevitably led to children being more vulnerable and open to any form of digital threat like online abuse and bullying. According to media reports, in April 2020 the National Commission for Women (NCW) wrote to the Director General of Police in Gujarat after someone hacked into an online class run by a university and began behaving inappropriately on the screen. In another incident, a Delhi-based school girl was extorted for ransom from a cyberbully who threatened to release her sensitive images around the school group chat.

It is the mass popularity of the Internet amongst young users that have made the implementation of cyber safety strategies a herculean task. These strategies have focused on personal risks and protective policies, but somehow, due to the vastness of the monitoring field, the threats are more severe to master.

Today, cyber security has become one of the major challenges for the contemporary world due to its complex technology and politics. For instance, the mass penetration of social media influence in our daily lives has laid the fine groundwork for cybercriminals to engage in illegal and inauthentic activities across social media platforms. Since early 2020, even more, children have begun to spend time on the Internet—for learning, socialisation, and entertainment—as a result of the widespread lockdowns and school closures that were implemented by governments to contain the pandemic outbreak. For instance, The UK-based watchdog, Internet Watch Foundation, has observed that 2021 was the worst year on record for child sexual abuse online. Besides this, in Australia, there was a steep 90% increase in online illegal content between 2019 and 2020, the bulk of it consisting of sexually explicit online content.

For instance, in India, 400 per cent of cybercrimes against youngsters were recorded in the early pandemic phase of 2020. Almost 90% of these crimes were depicting children in physically explicit acts. More such cases of cyber threats have taken over the world by storm and have widely opened the need for proper safety norms to tackle the issue. There needs to be proper planning, and implementation of strict regulations in schools, at home to monitor young viewers’ screen time. Moreover, understanding and generating awareness about government cyber safety policies amongst the masses should be undertaken as well. Read the forthwith blog to understand the extent of cyber threats and about various level safety measures that could be used to aware the youth faction and masses in general of the rights and wrongs of the internet.

The world wide web or the internet has become the greatest digital innovation in the history of mankind. It has become a major part of our lives in terms of information sharing, researching, surfing for facts and data, uploading new ideas, gaming, socialising and much more. It is also a great source to communicate with friends and family across borders without worrying about distances. However, there are good and bad sides to enjoying free access to the internet. 1 out of 3 children today is making use of the internet for studies or games. It goes without saying that the threat to cyber security and safety is a lingering issue with internet services. Apart from this, globally the cases of online cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and extortion of children, and young people on the internet have been rapidly on the rise since Covid-19.

Women Entrepreneurship Women play a key role in the labour force or economic development of the country. However, it is seen often that their role is isolated and forgotten in the larger framework of economic growth. The role played by women as women business entrepreneurs or decent employees is a major instrument of women empowerment that needs to be accepted. Besides, achieving gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is vital not only from a women’s rights perspective but also for smart economics. As global economies grow faster when gender equity is advanced, fewer people are in poverty and the overall well-being of a nation increases. According to a report in Washington Post, around 54 million women globally were forced to leave their work during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gender equity talks about treating men and women in fairness. To ensure that, measures and strategies must be made available for any kind of discrimination and disadvantage women face while operating with men in the same field. Equity leads to equality. Gender equality requires an absolute balance between men and women in terms of social development, opportunities, education and other factors. Similarly, having good knowledge, confidence, and awareness of gender equity are part of the women empowerment process. These factors are well developed through education since an educated woman is aware of her rights and thus cannot be discriminated in society. The Indian government has been focused and inclined to carry forward the idea of ‘Nari Shakti’ in regard to women empowerment and has shown commitment to improving women’s lives by the implementation of various campaigns

Education & Skill Development Women’s education is one of the foremost means for empowering women to become knowledgeable, skilled and self-confident to fully participate in the country’s development process. Providing access to proper education is a milestone on the path of woman’s empowerment because it enables them to respond to challenges, understand their roles and change their lives for the better. It is the responsibility of the governmental authorities to identify and acknowledge and promote measures that fulfil all girls’ and women’s potential through education and proper skill development. The intention should be to eradicate the illiteracy of women without any discrimination. Civil societies can collaborate with the governments to ensure universal access of education, and healthcare on the basis of equality for women throughout their lives.