Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Orkut or not to Orkut?
Little did Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer who developed the social networking service called Orkut know that his independent project in Google 20 per cent will be the second most visited site in India. Though initially it was in Brazil that the popularity graph gained prominence but abuse came in the form of fake profiles and hate communities.
Recently Orkut India has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. With the kidnap and murder of 16 year old Adnan Patrawal of Mumbai, Orkut has come under the scanner making it a hotstepper in the hitlists of the rising cybercrime. Statistics with the Delhi Police say that a total of 17 cases related to hacking, obscenity, e-commerce fraud, Internet-related crimes were registered in 2006. There were 12 cases registered in 2005 indicating 42 per cent rise. It happens that 2005 almost marks the popularity of Orkut as a public forum. The news is that Adnan went to meet a girl , Angel D whom he met in Orkut. But unfortunately, his three friends abducted him and killed him for a heavy ransom.
Orkut is an addictive forum and is helping to stay in touch with long-lost buddies in a very easy and simple process. Its a piece of cake for the 'peeping Toms' as its allows an Orkut member to go to any profile and check scraps and videos and that person's friend lists. There are also communities that raise awareness and being members of it you can in fact track other friends also.
But sadly, this community is being misused, with people creating fake profiles and using it to faclitate sex trade and other murky activities. Talks have been going on to ban Orkut in India but this is not going to suffice anybody's needs. Orkut is just a drop of water in the vast ocean of Internet. If it is banned those pervs will find another site to carry on their mindless sadistic crimes.
All that is needed is to use our freedom of expression in a mature way. We need to stay vigil to shoo away all the unwanted elements that are making other innocent people suffer.
Recently Orkut India has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. With the kidnap and murder of 16 year old Adnan Patrawal of Mumbai, Orkut has come under the scanner making it a hotstepper in the hitlists of the rising cybercrime. Statistics with the Delhi Police say that a total of 17 cases related to hacking, obscenity, e-commerce fraud, Internet-related crimes were registered in 2006. There were 12 cases registered in 2005 indicating 42 per cent rise. It happens that 2005 almost marks the popularity of Orkut as a public forum. The news is that Adnan went to meet a girl , Angel D whom he met in Orkut. But unfortunately, his three friends abducted him and killed him for a heavy ransom.
Orkut is an addictive forum and is helping to stay in touch with long-lost buddies in a very easy and simple process. Its a piece of cake for the 'peeping Toms' as its allows an Orkut member to go to any profile and check scraps and videos and that person's friend lists. There are also communities that raise awareness and being members of it you can in fact track other friends also.
But sadly, this community is being misused, with people creating fake profiles and using it to faclitate sex trade and other murky activities. Talks have been going on to ban Orkut in India but this is not going to suffice anybody's needs. Orkut is just a drop of water in the vast ocean of Internet. If it is banned those pervs will find another site to carry on their mindless sadistic crimes.
All that is needed is to use our freedom of expression in a mature way. We need to stay vigil to shoo away all the unwanted elements that are making other innocent people suffer.
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