Bois Locker Room

Bois-Locker-Room

Rampant surge in Social media toxicity is encouraging minors to adopt misogynistic or abusive avatars that can be disastrous for the futuristic aspect of the country.

The Story So Far

Lewd or lascivious screenshots of conversations on an Instagram group called “Bois Locker Room” have recently surfaced on social media that caused much uproar in the public domain.Purportedly the group, believed to be run by class 11 and 12 boys from a prominen schools in South Delhi.In this group they shared photographs of teenage girls of their classmates of the same school.During Chatting they discussed gangraping them and made sexualised comments about their private body parts.Some of these boys and girls are minor.The members of this group were allegedly sharing obscene images.The morphed images and  purported screenshots from the Instagram group had been shared widely on Twitter and Instagram on Sunday.The chatroom, exposed on Sunday by a girl targeted in the grisly group chats, has drawn massive anger, shock and disgust on social media.Such types of incidents are a wake up call for the parents and school authorities.

Worrying Times.

The group formed last month or so kicked up a social media storm when screenshots surfaced.Police is interrogating a 15-year-old boy to identify other members.Similar incidents involving minors discussing rape/ gang rape of classmates have been reported on other digital platforms like WhatsApp too,across cities.The exchanges in the now deleted group require precise responses from police,parents and school authorities around whom the fates of the juveniles involved now revolve.It is important to recognise where a teenager spouting objectification of his female counterparts is coming from.People of all ages,not just children,are retreating deeper into the recesses of their online avatars during this lockdown.But the heavy technological investment in children’s education,including flooding them with personal smartphones,has not been matched by serious conversations centred on responsible internet usage and equality.Young,impressionable minds absorb the normalisation of rape from the adults around them.When what they see, read and hear is toxic masculinity that is what they perform.That’s what peer pressure becomes about.But if this youthful role play of macho dominance receives timely counselling,it can prevent far graver adult offences.Schools and parents have a critical role to play in educating children on gender equality.Digital platforms which claim to have zero tolerance towards content that violates community standards must also explain why such abuses go undetected,despite boasts about AI driven technologies to stop them.They should play a more proactive role in stopping the sexual harassment of real people in the guise of virtual sport.

Main cause of concern.

Boys-Locker-Group

A 15-year-old boy from a prominent school in South Delhi has been apprehended by the Delhi Police cyber cell personnel in connection with his alleged involvement in an Instagram group whose members.Police have also identified about 22 students who were part of the infamous Instagram a chat room group,called "Bois Locker Room",which has triggered wide-spread outrage in the country since its posts came to light a couple of days ago.Other boys who have been identified by the cyber cell personnel will be called for questioning and further investigation will be in process ,police said.The cyber cell has lodged an FIR following a complaint about the Instagram group.
In their complaint,school authorities requested police to investigate the incident.“His phone was switched off,he was apprehended on Monday evening after police could find out his address,” the offi-cer added.The incident came to light after a 19-year-old college student filed a complaint after she found her images shared on this Instagram chatroom. Yesterday,the administration of one of the schools went to the police.Delhi Police has registered a case under Section 465(forgery),471 (using as gen-uine a forged document or electronic record),469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation of a woman), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the IT Act,a senior police officer of the cyber cell,who is investigating into the case,said.The cyber-crime division of the city police has written to Facebook-owned Insta-gram for sharing the details about alleged accounts involved in the group, whose details are awaited,police said.The initial investigation into the incident has revealed that students from some prominent schools in South Delhi were part of the Instagram group chat.The Delhi Commissionfor Women (DCW) has taken cognisance of the outrage and sent a notice to Instagramand Delhi Police in the matter.

What lies Ahead?

The Class 11 and 12 students of four or five schools in South Delhi are believed to be involved in this matter.The school boys casually talked about rape,sexual objectification and slut-shamed school girls on their Instagarm chat room. The group members used to discuss about sexual assault against their own classmates and misogyny in a casual way,police said.
The Delhi Commission for Women also issued a notice to Instagram.On Tuesday, one boy was questioned.While action against the boys is imperative in the course of justice,this episode points to a larger problem.The conversations followed a familiar pattern of sexual violence against women and girls of shaming,vile objectification and an assertion of power over them.These boys do not live in isolation they are a product of a patriarchal society that has allowed “locker room” talk to go unchecked.For a long-term solution to ensure the safety of girls and gender equality,it is incumbent on society,parents, teachers,classmates and society at large to rid young boys of the sexism and misogyny that are often embedded in this culture.

Make no mistake:

This is not just a Delhi problem.This is not just an Instagram problem either. Patriarchal societies excuse young boys for predatory behaviour and contribute to a rape culture.The incident points to how this culture has percolated down to the new generation.It can only be fought by changing the very mindset that encouraged this violent behaviour.Adopt a policy of zero-tolerance and make it unacceptable.In a statement,Facebook-owned Instagram said it gave top priority to ensuring its users can express themselves in a "safe and respectful way".
"We absolutely do not allow behaviour that promotes sexual violence or exploits anyone,especially women and young people,and have actioned content violating our Community Standards as we were made aware of it," a Facebook spokesperson said.The company said the objectionable content that violated its community standards was removed as soon as it was made aware of it is a welcome step.

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Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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