Parents should be alert about ISIS's online propaganda: Mumbai Police

Mumbai: Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmed Javed on Wednesday said parents have a pivotal role to play to guard against the youngsters joining terror outfit ISIS.

"An alert parent goes a long way and the major worry is how Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is using the cyber-world to get into the mind of youngsters, who have grown up in the liberal democratic lives like France etc," Javed said during an interaction with industrialists and cyber expert Vijay Mukhi here.

"ISIS targets small towns in France and other parts of Europe. ISIS has managed getting into the minds of people. We need to be aware of the danger that is present online and to start taking steps to fight it."

"In urban Indian scenarios parents are not aware that ISIS is capable of doing this in the cyber world to their children who use internet daily," the IPS officer said.

Speaking about overall cyber crime, he also said youngsters are more vulnerable to blackmailing, stalking, cyber bulling, and "the problem is that the parents are technologically challenged in terms of picking up alerts, as to what their children are doing or picking up online".

"Hacking is another problem, but the biggest culprits are the business world people, who are looking at making budget cuts in security. Minor aberrations are pushed under carpet by big companies thinking it will be a bad name on the business," the top cop added.

"I was in America and saw that NYPD spends a phenomenal amount of money and is effective cause of the money put in their gadgets etc," said Javed.

"We are the first in country to start a cyber police station in Mumbai, but we still need more in terms of the size of our city. Businesses in banking sector do not report crimes as they do not want to get a bad name and that is not a good strategy," the CP opined.

"By May 2016, the entire city will have dedicated top of the line CCTV coverage. We have also started a traffic 24-7 helpline where people can call for complaints, traffic updates, accidents etc. Police is making constant efforts to make the city safe despite the huge challenges we face on a daily basis like infrastructural, space, traffic, etc,"  he said.

He also said that the use of technology by police is increasing to make sure the city is safe from all sorts of crime.