Why circulating rape and molestation videos – even with best of intentions – is sick and disturbing
It was on a lazy Saturday afternoon that I logged into Facebook and began scrolling — one of those passive activities which have come to define life for so many of us.
It was then that I came across a video shared by a friend which left me disturbed.
The video showed a man molesting a girl child, who didn't appear to be older than 10 years, in a crowded space. A woman standing next to the child, apparently her mother, noticed what the man was doing and pulled the child away to save her from the man. Somebody filmed the video and shared it too, apparently with the aim to name and shame the man. The face of the child, who appeared too young to even comprehend what the man was doing to her, was clearly visible in the video — thus making her identity public.
I requested my friend to take down the post — she did.
But the video is still in circulation.
The event left me thinking of a similar video that showed a man molesting a woman in a jam-packed train, a video that was shared along with angry captions about the shamelessness of the man. The only problem the video posed — it showed the face of the victim.
Both videos were widely shared on Facebook and Twitter, by people claiming they wanted that the men in the videos be identified and made to face the law of the land.
Noble intention, we would think.
But noble intentions alone are not enough when it comes to dealing with sexual crimes against women. Nobody bothered to ensure that the face of the victim is at least blurred before hitting "share".
I shudder to think of what would happen if the children studying with the little girl get to see the video? How will she be treated in school?
In a country where sexual assaults are far from being delinked with a punishing stigma, such careless publicising of a victim's identity needs to be called out.
Those sharing the video of the woman being molested in a train also never thought that she might have to face condemnation even from her own family for the harassment she suffered.
India doesn't seem to have the two minutes that need to be dedicated in thinking about such victims — what they go through, the resistance and ignominy posed by those in their immediate surroundings, how they cope with this on top of the trauma they experience.
First, we as a society made rape, a heinous crime, seem 'normal', to the point where we have become inured to daily reports of the cime. Now we are normalising victim identification.
Interestingly, India has a law against disclosing the name of victims of rape or other forms of sexual assault or harassment.
But sample this to understand how we have failed to implement the law on the ground. Two main bravery awards for children in India are named after Sanjay and Geeta Chopra, who were kidnapped for ransom but were later murdered. Geeta was raped.
Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code lays down the provisions that prohibit the disclosure of the identity of the victim of certain offences.
It says:
"Whoever prints or publishes the name or any matter which may make known the identity of any person against whom an offence under section 376 (rape), section 376A (rape leading to death or making victim go into a permanent vegetative state), section 376B (sexual intercourse by husband upon his wife during separation) , section 376C (sexual intercourse by person in authority) or section 376D (gang rape) is alleged or found to have been committed (hereafter in this section referred to as the victim) shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine."
Ignorance of the law is thankfully not treated as an excuse to break it. It is a legal principle which holds that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because he or she was unaware of it.
However, many who know the law too have been sharing videos and photos of victims of late. One cannot deny that as a country, we have begun to treat sexual assault as a more serious crime than we did in the past, many of us treat the issue of making the country safer for women with a sense of urgency — and we must. But none of this should come at the cost of compromising the victim's identity.
We only go on to make the life of victims more difficult by this insensitive, thoughtless sharing of videos.
So, the next time we chance upon such a video or photo, let us not circulate it, unless the face of the victim has been hidden and we are 100 per cent sure that our sharing will not in any way reveal their identity.