Of pranks and the safety of children online

‘Rahul for Sales–Chennai’ said the ad in the pets section of an e-commerce website recently. Except, if you looked at the image and the description, it was a little boy who was being ‘sold’.

In the ad that has since been taken down on Quikr.com (a cached image which is available with The Hindu ), Rahul, a cherubic young boy was being sold for “Rs. 5 only.” The caption with the picture indicated the reason why he was being sold cheap — apparently he was a “very bad boy. No respect to elders.” Turns out, Rahul’s elder brother had posted the ad on Quikr using his father’s login, to get even with him after a fight.

Rahul’s father is nearly in tears when we call him (the number is on the ad). “It’s my elder son. The two boys had a fight and the older fellow decided to sell his brother on Quikr. He used my phone to post the message without my knowledge. You won’t believe the number of calls I’ve got since. People who were looking for pets saw this and called me. I’m terribly sorry about this. I immediately asked them to pull down the ad,” he says, apologetic.

But not everyone is willing to take it as a joke. Tamil Nadu Child Rights Observatory (TNCRO), a civil society monitoring agency comprising over 250 NGOs in the State, has written to the chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, bringing the situation to their attention.

“Clearly, this is a prank. But we also see the possibility of misuse of e-commerce forums to exploit children,” says Andrew Sesuraj, convenor, TNCRO.

“Un-moderated content is not safe. It is easy for someone to misuse a child’s picture and number, just to settle scores with him or her. In that instance, even if the ad is taken down, the damage could have been done in the short while it is up,” he adds.

It is important for the state to recognise emerging threats and secure the online space for children, he says.

Under the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child, or the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, it is the duty of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the NCPCR to monitor and prevent such violations, Mr. Sesuraj adds.