Visakhapatnam: When Shyla Talluri from Florida put up a post on Facebook, little did she know that it would unleash a series of malicious trolls and abusive comments against her. The founder-director of Pure, an NGO working in the education sphere, she was brave enough to take on her aggressors. One of her cyber bullies allegedly belongs to the YSR Congress and she sought an apology from the party. Replying to comments posted by a Facebook user by the name of ‘Naresh Reddy MudiReddy’, she said, ‘Is this what YSR congress encourages..? Nice to kn-ow...Good going Jagan Reddy. Guess this is how you plan to become a Chief Minister...insulting women. I demand an apology from YSR congress!! God save AP!!..’
In another post, Ms Talluri asked: ‘Is social media the new playground for machismo !!! Are there women’s gro-ups on Facebook trying to fight this?? Do not tell me to hide my pics...it's time men kept everything zipped up including their pie hole!!’ Women have become soft targets for cyber bullies. From making sexist remarks to trolling random women, cyber-stalkers are missing no opportunity to launch attacks on women.
Such online bullying has led to several women keeping away from or quitting social media gr-oups. But some have co-mplained to the police or stood firm against their abusers. Head of the De-partment of Psychology and Parapsychology, An-dhra University, Prof MVR Raju, said that the hate posts and vulgar remarks against women on social media could si-gnal a much deeper ma-laise in the offenders and urged parents and teachers to inculcate ap-propriate behaviour in youngsters.
“As articulated by Erik Erikson, there are eight stages of psychological development, from conception to death, in each individual. The correct guidance of peers, teachers, family and acquaintances helps an individual to develop a coping mechanism to taxing str-essors and situations. Those who don't have proper support will fall prey to those stressors,” said Prof Raju.
Sai Padma, a legal professional and founder-president of Global Aid, an NGO working for the disabled, said, “Social media users think their profiles are anonymous But there will be dangerous repercussions for th-e offenders as they are very easily traceable wi-th technology available.”
