Shillong, July 31: The KSU Delhi unit has written to Hamletson Dohling Minister of IT & Communication State of Meghalaya to alam the youth and it’s citizens on the against the Gurugram based Stormy TV contest and urged to take action against dubious online contest.
The letter sent by the KSU unit said that, “We all live in the era where the internet has become a basic necessity for the masses which has eventually changed the way how we consume it and the social media is one of it. The social media offers many opportunities for information gathering, entertainment and social interaction. Indeed, many positive effects can be experienced from time spent online. Nevertheless, sexual salutation and exposure identity treats, cyberbulling and inappropriate online competitions”.
With the rise of unemployment level in the state due to the outbreak of Covid-19, there is a surge in the social media sites that display multiple advertisements such as banner ads, behaviour ads and inappropriate online competition that targeted people on the basis of their web-browsing behaviour and demographic-base ads and also on the basis of a specific factor such as age, gender, education, marital status that influence not only the buying tendencies of preadolescents and adolescents.
The recent news published by the Manipur Students Association Delhi, to alarm its youth and citizens against the Gurugram based Stormy TV contest that encourages young adults from the northeastern region to participate. In this regard, the Union would like to bring to your notice that these online competitions are dubious and uncertain.
These online contest have also started surfacing in the State of Meghalaya. Therefore, we would like to urge the government to intervene and conduct an investigation on this matter.
The Union would like to highlight such issues which are important for everyone especially our youth to be aware of. There have been cases where these contests lure minors and young adults with tempting prizes,only to blackmail and expose them in different illegitimate ways.
Accordingly, there is a need for the government to closely monitor such inappropriate online activities which misleads our youth in the traps of human trafficking or prostitution. We strongly urged the department concerned and the public at large to spread awareness and educate the youth about the online world.
This is also to appeal to whoever have been victims of such cyber crime and cyber grooming to come forward and report to the authority so that strict actions can be taken. Said Marbiang Khongwir president of the KSU unit.
