Online exposure straining family fabric

Cases of girls leaving home to join social media friends on the rise

LAHORE:

Dua Zehra, a girl from Karachi allegedly forced into child marriage, was detained from Chishtian in Bahawalnagar district along with her husband on Sunday. Earlier in the week, another girl who had reportedly reached Lahore to marry in the city was recovered from Ghaziabad on May 30.

She, like Dua, had come into contact with the suspect Ali Mushtaq through social media and developed friendship with him. After she went missing, a case was registered in Jamshed Quarters police station in Karachi. Based on the call data record of the girl’s phone till May 16, the Karachi police had concluded that she had reached Lahore.

The location of her phone was traced in various parts of Lahore. As the matter was brought to the notice of Lahore police, multiple teams of cops conducted raids to trace the girl. She was found living with Mushtaq who was also arrested and valuables the girl had brought from her parents’ home were also recovered.

Two other cases of girls going missing from Karachi were also reported last month. One of the girls shared a video message on social media, stating that she had left her home of her own will and had been staying in a district of South Punjab happily after marrying a person of her choice. The girls had also reportedly come into contact with their friends through online games and social media.

Police officials say there have been several cases in which girls from Karachi developed a relationship with men in Lahore through online platforms but landed in peril. Last year, a case was reported in which a girl from Karachi had developed a friendship through the PUBG game and come to meet a person in North Cantonment, Lahore. However, she was raped and abandoned at a railway station to be trapped by other men who also assaulted her.

In another case, a woman had shot herself dead outside a friend's place in Ghalib Market. The divorced woman had reportedly developed a relationship with a man in Lahore and travelled to the city to marry him. Upon his refusal, she committed suicide. In another case, FIA Cybercrime Wing officials had arrested a bridegroom and all members of the wedding procession from Lahore Railway Station after their arrival from Karachi.

The man reportedly had developed a relationship with a girl from Lahore and blackmailed her into marrying him by using her intimate videos and pictures. The girl approached the FIA, whose personnel got hold of the suspect after entrapping him. What is this whole phenomenon and what is the panacea for it? Should it be looked at through moral lenses or a holistic approach is necessary to understand the issue in depth and find a way out?

It is an evident fact that after the digital revolution we are living in a global village in the literal sense -- a world that transcends physical distance, national borders and traditional barriers of race and ethnicity. The social media platforms have provided porous borders and made a diverse interaction possible even for the people hitherto unexposed outside their communities. People from remote villages who a few decades back hardly travelled to another city or village in their life now interact with those living in Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Canada.

The modern communication technology is deeply impacting the traditions, moral values, cultural barriers and standards through cross-cultural interactions. Children like the girls involved in the recent cases are said to be ‘digital natives’ of the millennial generation. They are different from the generation of ‘digital migrants’ who had been introduced to the digital age after coming of age.

The digital migrants had spent a considerable time of their lives while learning through traditional institutions like the family, school and madrassah. Libraries, elders, teachers, neighbours or a governmentowned national TV channel had earlier been the sources of information and learning. Digital natives have a wild exposure to information and knowledge that is not curtailed or groomed in the traditional moulds.

The new generation growing under such an influx of information technology needs modern ways of nurturing, education and parenting that has not yet been considered at the policy level. Sociologists point out that the worsening global political and economic conditions have impacted the households in Pakistan. The declining standard of living has caused frustration in families and impacted child health also. Such an environment also breeds rebellious attitudes among children.