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BOIS LOCKER ROOM
- An online group allegedly involving teenage boys from Delhi schools casually talking about rape, sexual objectification and slut-shaming schoolgirls has set off a storm on social media.
- Delhi Police has filed cases linked to the Instagram group, which has now been deactivated.
- The cyber-crime division of the police has also written to Facebook-owned Instagram for details on the group that is every parent’s worst nightmare.
- The controversy flared on Sunday after several social media users posted screenshots on Instagram and Twitter of an online group called “Bois Locker Room”.
BOIZ LOCKER ROOM
- They show members of the group – said to be Class 11 and 12 students from some of Delhi’s top schools – posting photos of teenage girls without their consent along with comments too crude to be reproduced.
- A number of conversations purportedly showed members talking about sexual assault often against their own classmates, raising questions about normalising of rape, misogyny and objectification in schools.
- The Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal called for the arrest of those associated with the group.
- “The DCW has sent notices to Instagram and Delhi Police. We want these boys to be arrested immediately and the strongest action to be taken against them,” she told NDTV
- Soon after the Delhi Police swung into action in order to probe the Boys Locker Room controversy, one school student has been detained by the Cyber Cell in connection with the Instagram chat group.
ACTION
- The one who has been nabbed so far is a 15-year-old student of a prominent school in South Delhi. “22 other boys have also have been identified and they would be called for investigation,” the police said on Tuesday (5 May). The detained accused would be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).
- A case was registered under section 465 (forgery), 471 (using forged document), 469 (Forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman) of the IPC and 67 and 67A of the Information Technology (IT) Act at cyber cell of Delhi police
FACEBOOK RESPONSE
“We absolutely do not allow behavior 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. We have policies that disallow the sharing of non-consensual intimate imagery, as well as threats to share such imagery and we take this issue very seriously. Ensuring our community can express themselves in a safe and respectful way is our top priority,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.
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