‘Tinder’ may not be an ideal space for a 13-year-old to be, but many schoolgoers are busy swiping left or right on the dating app. As schools and universities remain closed, students are becoming increasingly hooked to the virtual world where all kinds of dangers abound.
While minors are creating fake profiles and exchanging personal information on dating sites, older students are getting addicted to pornography. “Social isolation has caused maladjustment issues, with a good percentage of them spending long hours on porn sites. Online dating, stalking, and blackmailing have become common,” says Antony Palackal, Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Kerala, who is doing a study on the psychosocial effects of COVID-19-induced social isolation on university students.
After interacting with PhD, postgraduate and undergraduate students, he says most youngsters are immensely affected by the situation. “They are using not just common dating apps, but exploring platforms meant for LGBTIQ+ community as well.”
Mr. Palackal thinks lockdown is the main cause for this behavioural change as students have been missing all aspects of a normal campus life. “In the absence of social interaction, they are drawn to the digital world,” he says.
Frantic calls from parents
Teachers and counsellors say they have been getting frantic calls from concerned parents. “Digital dating abuse was not a familiar term for us until recently. We always thought teenagers are relatively free from serious forms of cyberbullying,” says Anna Thomas, teacher.
Though most schools and colleges have social media policies, they have not stopped students from having some anonymous online indulgence.
Double the duration
“Since most activities now happen online, there has been a sharp increase in cybercrime. Device addiction, abuse and gaming have surged just like online financial frauds. Cybercrime has seen an upward trend in the past 1.5 years,” says Additional Director General of Police Manoj Abraham, nodal officer of Cyberdome.
He adds that though porn consumption is no post-COVID-19 phenomenon, the user duration must have doubled now. “According to studies, adult websites recorded huge traffic all over the world during the pandemic. The trend applies to Kerala too”
Long-term impact
Experts warn that compulsive use of digital space can lead to long-term consequences, including deviant sexual behaviour. Often, this can develop into an obsession and affect one’s mental well-being.
“You can gradually wean one off chatting and gaming, but that need not be the case with porn. Often parents fail to identify the problem and when they try to restrict it at a later stage, children retaliate violently. They become easily irritable and aggressive. But they can be corrected with timely intervention and proper parental supervision,” says M.P. Radhakrishnan, psychiatrist.
