Digital Citizens of Maldives.

Squinting through the thick lenses of his horn-rimmed glass at the LCD screen in front of him, and then shifting his gaze to the keyboard, Mohamed Ali was meticulously typing away. Oblivious of me, his 22 years old son’s friend, he was expeditious at what he was doing, even though only his index fingers were used to build up the entire conversation on a Live messenger window. Later I discovered that the Mohamed Ali was instant messaging his 56 year wife who is India for medical treatment. Both Mohamed and His wife Hawwa Didi can be called digital citizens.

The gap between those who can access and use a computer or more specifically internet and those who cannot is called digital divide. Since the introduction of internet, in Maldives, more than a decade ago in 1996 and due to the comparatively diminutive taxation of 5% levied on computer hardware this gap has lessened significantly. What this means is more internet user, or more digital citizens.

In this era of modern technology, digital citizens come from all backgrounds, profession and ages. Even the like of Mohamed Ali, who is linguistically challenged to use an operating system whose “mother tongue” is English, is no exception. I asked Mohamed Ali, how he has gained such a level of proficiency, in using Windows XP, and browsing the internet, despite the fact he cannot read English. “Well, it’s simple, Cant you see this picture next to every button over here?. That’s enough. Why do I need to know English huh?!” Sarcastically he said pointing his finger toward an icon on his desktop. Thanks to the graphical user interface adopted by Microsoft for its windows.

Still, out of sheer curiosity I asked him what he does with internet without English. Giving me a cynical look he said that there are enough Dhivehi newspapers online to keep him busy. “You cannot trust any one newspaper when it comes to political news now days. So I read it all online. I cannot imagine how my life would be without internet now.” A man who has spent half a century of his life, devoid of computers and internet now finds his life impossible without it. His granddaughter was sitting on a sofa chair nearby. With a laptop in her hand she was going Wi-Fi.

Internet’s versatility is almost infinite. For some, while internet it is a mean of escaping the boredom, for others internet opinion polls are a digital prophecy for things like predicting the next president. Over the internet everyone has something to do and that too with an extraordinary level of freedom. It’s an irreplaceable component which has entwined itself intricately into our lives. This is why it is not a bolt from the blue that Maldives is ranked highest for its internet penetration among the South Asian nations. It’s a great feat for Maldivians but amidst this newly found internet mediocrity many of us has forgotten internet is a double-edged sword.

Many Maldivians parents have a way of furnishing their homes with a computer just because their next door neighbor has done so. ADSL connections are installed days later to overcome the annoying demands of their kids. While some educated and informed parents maintains some sort of routine to check on the internet habits of their digital young ones, others simply don’t get enough time, or don’t bother to find out whether their kids are using the internet safely or getting abused over the internet. They are either too ignorant or unaware of the dark side of the internet.

Dark side of the internet is about nefarious act like child pornography, defamation, and copyright infringement. It’s about manipulation of useful features like anonymity as a shield by pedophiles. It’s about hackers stealing personal information and secret government data. It’s a place where people are blackmailed for their own self dignity. Even though no official data is there to support its, it’s an irrefutable truth, that internet have had detrimental impacts on the marriage lives of many when their personal files gets in the wrong hands. Can this be called digital divorces? These are not incidents that occur half a continent across, but within the small islands of Maldives.

The most frequent way in which the rights of many digital citizens of Maldivians are violated is by privacy invasion. Personal photographs, video clips, chat logs, and even voice call recording of many Maldivians, especially young girls, are exposed without their consent on various website run by Maldivians.

Many methods are utilized by deviants to retrieve such personal files. Stealing of storage devices is the most common and successful technique. Therefore extra precautions need to be taken, such as password protecting or encrypting the files, so even if the hardware is stolen, it would be almost impossible to obtain them. Some pictures posted on FaceBook were tagged as “these pictures are from a pen drive I got off the road.” This clear evidence the freedom the perpetrators enjoy is invading others right to privacy without the slightest fear of been detected, questioned or prosecuted.

Modern day breakups have an extra bit of pain and humiliation to it. Many of the explicit pictures posted, speak itself with a voice of betrayed trust and love and promises. Girls, who are the pride and honor of every family, now needs to be more cautious of how they treasure the intimate moments with their loved one.

Facebook, the social networking utility, has literally become discomfiture for many Maldivians. A face book group search for the keyword “bitun” result in about 56* groups which has usually girls and also boys photos posted on it. More often than not these pictures are personal and family photos acquired and posted on it by someone without the owner’s consent. Revolting is the fact that a whopping number of more than 23000* members have joined these groups. Furthermore they encourage and advocate these sinister actions by joining and remarking those pictures with atrocious and offensive comments. This aids us eventhough roughly in understanding the magnitude of this issue. It is of utmost importance to think about the image of Maldivian girls and the 100% Maldivian society that would be created in the eyes of many Facebook users from all regions of the world.

Vilest crimes of 21st century occurs over the internet. Most of us are equally susceptible to the dark side of the internet but the most vulnerable are the most innocent, the children and internet newbies. Preventable measures needs to be put in place as soon as possible. Government needs to deploy new laws governing internet and computer misuse. Internet habits of kids needs to be monitored, and guided in the right direction. It is the lack of relevant knowledge which results in most cyber crimes. Awareness programs needs to be arranged for new internet users on how to detect and dodge the dark side of the internet.

“Enemenah varah salaam..then mihaaru dhany” Mohamed Ali typed into his online conversation with his wife. Then he signed out.