Booklet campaign to make young girls 'Cyber-Safe'

Do not become a victim of cyber-stalking, cyber-blackmail and sextortion, appealed degree college student volunteers in Mangaluru to other girl students in the city.

Kavoor Government First Grade College students along with those of other colleges passionately appealed to their peers to be careful while uploading their photos and personal information online. They handed over a copy of a booklet titled ‘Cyber-Safe Girl’ to girl students free of cost.

The student volunteers distributed over 400 such booklets to girl students outside the colleges identified as CET exam centres in and around the city on Monday.

Meena case

A student volunteer handing over books to girl students outside Besant college near MG Road spoke of how a naive girl named Meena had shared her cell number with a mobile shop owner and ended up becoming a victim of cyber-blackmail.

“The mobile shop owner began blackmailing Meena by threatening to upload morphed nude pictures of her on social media,” the volunteer explained as students heard her with rapt attention.

“Students should read the true-life stories and share it with three others,” said Ganesh M Nayak and Manikantha who were entrusted with the task of training students to educate others about the book’s objectives.

The project

Cyber-Safe Girl, which has a foreword written by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and order) Hanumantharaya and 15 true stories, is the brainchild of young entrepreneurs Darshan Jain, Dishit Shetty, ManikantaJitesh Jain, Nandan Jain and Guru M Rao.

The young entrepreneurs, working closely with the police, had realised how drug abuse, cyber-crime were interlinked and youngsters are often the victims.

“I was introspecting on my role and how I could solve problems like drug abuse,” explains Darshan who maintains a fine balance between his business and philanthropic activities.

It is this introspection which prompted him to organise yoga camps for undertrials in district jail.

The association with like-minded friends like Ananth Prabhu G and Vivek Shetty helped me launch the Cyber Safe Girl project, he said.

“Each book cost around Rs 17.50 and the expenses were met from our own resources,” he said and thanked the student volunteers for the favour.

Darshan dreams of adopting a park and introducing aerobic fitness programmes like Zumba in order to make youth shun drugs.