Online harassment seems to have reached epic proportions (“8 out of 10 Indians harassed online”, Oct. 5). This phenomenon has the potential to alter and distort the psyche of a huge number of people as the number of social media users has been growing at an exponential rate. While social media has democratised the way information is shared and allows us to express our opinions freely, it has led to a dangerous trend. It is incumbent on parents, teachers, and social media platforms to devise methods to educate the young about the dangers of social media. While parents and teachers can teach children how to guard themselves from online abuse, social media platforms should devise methods to disallow posts that are aimed to harass, abuse, threaten, attack, bully and troll. Stringent laws to punish the offenders, even while protecting the right to freedom of expression, should be enforced.
Kosaraju Chandramouli,
Hyderabad
