Spider Web

“Your neighbour is a bullshit and you wanna kill him? You wanna be rich? You need power? You wanna be loved? Sex or BDSM, pin-up ******? Destroy all your ****** enemies? One of seven capital sins? Nobody on Orkut is your friend? Tell me what you want and sign for your soul. I am your best friend...Your wish: ...Your name: ... [Inferno Customer Relationship Management] Our jingle is "Ready to serve our customers!" ” says a community named ‘Ask the Devil’ owned by Daniele Medri on Orkut. Search ‘Happy slapping’ on YouTube and you can find numbers of videos that encourage violence and bullying amongst teenagers, who were filming fights on their mobile phones. These two are just a few of the instances that openly accost and encourage violence on social networking sites. This is a simple observation of the exhausting social and human values wherein a public platform is being misused to serve vested interests by a particular section of the society operating numbers of communities and videos related to hatred, sex, devil and so on.

The concept of social networking websites emerged in 1995. The first social networking website was Classmates.com. Other sites followed, including Freindster, MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, and so on. Gradually the social networking sites became very popular among teens. The concept of online social networking came forth by west, emerged in USA and outspread the whole world. As per the demographic data available on net portal, USA has the largest number of users of such websites. However the users in India have increased massively. Orkut was born in 2004 and was introduced in India in February 2006. India is the third largest user of Orkut preceded by Brazil and USA at the second spot. The massive numbers of children as its user, it is a tough job for their guardian to prevent their children from using such sites. “I was shifted to India just because I was addicted to Hi5 and my daddy does not want me to use that site” says a young school girl who was earlier studying in UAE and now studying in India. That girl was hooked on Hi5, an online social networking site, and used to flirt with the guys on Hi5.

A community named ‘Hatred’ owned by Sameer Khan says “Hate me, your hatred feeds me. Cause, hatred is what I live for and death is what wish for! CLan Members !!.hatred. GaRRy. (leader) .hatred. Jhonny (Capt.) .hatred. Traitor .hatred. Dark .hatred. Ba-sain a.K.a Lft. KyLe .hatred. Dead a.K.a WoLf .” It has 85 members and the members of this community like to be despised. Another community named ‘ We hate pakistan’ owned by Dhruv Gupta says “ALL D PATRIOTIC INDIANS R MOST WELCOME SHOW UR ANGER N RAGE AGAINST WAT HAS BEEN DONE BY THEM TO OUR COUNTRY. KYUNKI BAAP, BAAP HI REHTA HAI NOTE: its not about hating pakistani people & their country...its about hating all those elements & ppl which are against India... JAI HIND”. This community has 1,418 members and the thread of this community encourage anti Pakistan feelings. These are mere two examples of hatred on Orkut. Due to easy accessibility and various hate groups Orkut is facing controversies. Several hate communities focused on racism, Nazism, and white supremacy has been deleted due to guideline violation. However the number of these communities and profiles has not stopped growing because they can be very easily created and it is hard for Orkut to check them. Anti-religion, anti-national, and anti-ethnic hate groups have also been spotted.

According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia “In 2005, various cases of racism were denounced to police and reported in the Brazilian media. In 2006, a judicial measure was opened by the Brazil federal justice denouncing a 20-year-old student accused of racism against Black people and spreading defamatory content on Orkut. Brazilian Federal Justice subpoenaed Google on March 2006 to explain the crimes that had occurred in Orkut.”

Same message is passed by an online video sharing site named youtube.com. Violent videos are frequently uploaded by the users like happy slapping, fighting girls and so on. Most of the videos are captured by the mobile camera. However some users use flash and assemble the photos to upload it. Both you tube and Orkut is owned by Google and recently Orkut is renovated on its 3rd Birthday. Now user can share videos on Orkut too.

“hey this is hot Indian….single and ready to mingle…the real sex guru and know the real definition fun...i am open for phone sex…so girls don’t think too much jus message me to get my personal no.” says the profile of hunk4u on Hi5. “I m d 1 u were looking for. Ready to do anything if u make me feel like a ****!!! I like it hot n wild n I love to be abused. I love to do all kinky things...n I love to be touched in public. So wat r u waiting for???? Come n get me. I m all urs” reads the profile of a user, Anamika Shinde on Orkut. The social networking websites are often misused by the users. As the number of online networking users increased, there was a rise in the number of fake and clone profiles. Several users want to satisfy their unfulfilled wants through net. There are more than 1000 communities related to sex. Presently these social networking sites have open online sexual transactions which have diverse effect on the psyche of the vulnerable lot.

Several users are advertising them through the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities. They offer services for sexual pleasure at amounts ranging from 2 to 5,000. What they need is contact number; they exchange numbers through private messages. Besides bare images and uncouth language the evil has clutched communities of schools in trying to lure young students into its trap. “I was shocked to know that somebody has created a fake profile of mine that has bare picture, my real contact number and my real address. I don’t use that number anymore” says a young student of Notre Dame Academy in Patna.
The fever of social networking is spreading like an epidemic disease. The child can be infected anytime anywhere where net is available. Nevertheless these social networking sites are blocked in many Islamic countries. As they say, this is due to national security issues, as users have the ability to spread wrong messages rapidly, but the government says ethical laws of Islam do not allow any person to date and match making. However, in UAE this block was later removed in October 2006. Thailand and Brazil are another two countries to block these sites. Brazil blocked only YouTube. The issue raised in Brazil when a Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli was captured by a freelance photographer while making love with her boyfriend and later the video was uploaded on YouTube. She sued YouTube and the court gave judgment in her favour and ordered YouTube to be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed.

Many schools, institutions, offices and public libraries in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have restricted access to these sites because it has become such a haven for student vicious gossip and malicious comments. This step was subsequently followed by the institutions in India, Pakistan, Turkey and many more. I asked a student of Engineering about from where he accesses these sites very often, he replied in a felicitous manner “I don’t need to go cafe to access Orkut, and I pay 65,000 every year to the institute, so I use the system of my institute”. However, the sites like Orkut are banned in that institution but students some how manage to unblock the sites.

“Though, these sites are meant to stay in touch through messages, scraps, and shouts as mailing have become boring and long. But it is very unfortunate and despicable to see that people use it for pervert purposes. At the initial stage you get enthusiastic but after certain time you start ignoring your friends. I was seriously addicted to Orkut, I left it because of over communication” says a student of Western International university, Rasshad Khan. This is one case and very few people like Rasshad has an ability of self-realization.

“i wanna die ... please help me!!!! hello evry1.... i want 2 commit suicide... please giv me the most difficult way to commit a suicide... i wnt matter if it is difficult.. coz i want to die...” says a user with a profile name waiting for life. “The most difficult way to commit suicide is 'to live a long life'... Go for it... At last, you will die by old age...” replies Amrit in the same thread in the community called Suicide, which has 274 members owned by Luckyless. There are several other communities related to suicide. These communities encourage people to commit suicide and the members discuss about the alternative methods of committing suicide.

The popularity of such sites is increasing very rapidly. According to the Connector Website Model New Implications for Social Change, by Paul DiPerna Brookings Talk August 3, 2006, Facebook (1,250%) and MySpace (350%) tipped, Friendster, Orkut, Tribe.net, and Craigslist may have been on verge of tipping (≥ 200%) and other connectors’ stats may be affected by: relative age or cyclical nature of community.

Table – 1: Pioneering Connector Websites (q2) By Alexa Traffic Rank (November 2005)

Table – 2: User Growth on Connector Websites by Percent Change in Alexa Reach Score Estimates*

* Alexa’s online traffic trend graphs provide data estimates for time period end points.

Evidence of Tipping Points?

From the above two tables it is very clear that the popularity of such sites are increasing day by day. Facebook and MySpace are more popular in west. The growth rate of Facebook is highest and MySpace is at second place. The graphs shown above clearly depict the massive addition of users. In just one year the number of users has increased worldwide. This is just a start and expected to increase more. Banning such sites by the government will serve no real purpose as it is the human tendency to explore ways. It is impossible for the sites owner to keep an eagle watch on such sites. Such sites are very easily accessible. This may emerge as a serious challenge for the government, guardians, and institutions to prevent individuals, children and students from accessing or misusing such sites.