Fond memories can turn into pornographic material:

Never store intimate moments on a mobile phone - TRCSL

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Sanduni is a young executive working for a leading private firm. She came rushing to the Telecommunications Regulations Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) office last week devastated. She wanted to lodge a complaint against a man who had uploaded a private video clip of herself to cyberspace. She did not know what to do about this but to seek legal assistance.

The woman who was in her mid twenties burst into tears and explained how she heard from a close friend about a video clip that contained nude images of her. An incident that had taken place several years ago when she was in a relationship with a boy, who later turned hostile and then finally broke up with her.

With minimum details she explained how her partner video recorded her body and movements with his smartphone at a private location.

At that time , he was so fond of her and she so in love with him that she would have done anything to please him and make him happy. In this instance she did not resist when he was videoing her and she was nude , she just took it as going to be a record of their intimacy to be revives in later times.

She did not bat an eyelid and thought nothing about it. It was clear that the boy had proposed to have the intimate activities of their relationship recorded as a fond memory.

Sanduni was now suffering from a phobia, where she thinks that anybody would instantly recognise her in public as being the person on that obscene video clip. Whenever she travels on a bus or walk into a public place she gets the impression that people are looking at her and casting funny looks because they may have recognised her from that infamous video clip released on the internet.

She could not help but share her pathetic situation with the Deputy Director of TRCSL Menaka H Pathirana and beg for justice. She pleaded from the authorities to remove the obscene clip from cyberspace and to take action against those who had stored it on their mobile phones, which had been circulated .

The officer could do nothing but kindly respond that the TRCSL was helpless and unable to help her in this regard nor accept a complaint as it was beyond their jurisdiction.

The office usually accepts complaints with regard to lost mobile phones to officially inform the mobile service providers to notify if a stolen or lost phone is being used with a different SIM card or if a person is receiving nuisance calls or nasty messages from somebody, the commission could intervene and take legal action.

But this scenario was beyond their authority. The victim could not do much and was kindly advised to be careful before exposing their bodies to persons with whom they were not familiar with . She was also educated about what modern mobile phones are capable of.

These are not rare cases reported to the TRCSL. Deputy Director (Consumer Relations) Menaka H Pathirana told the Sunday Observer that at least once a month a similar case was reported and was now reaching alarming proportions.

A few weeks ago a recently passed out university student came with a similar complaint. She was a bright student and was the highest scorer in her batch in a university in the Colombo District.

She claimed that her ex-boyfriend lured her to undress and capture the lewd footage on his mobile phone coaxing her that it was purely for memory sake and she fell into the trap.

But it did not take long for her to realise that her ex-boyfriend was not that innocent. They ceased the affair for some reason and she quickly learnt that her private clip recorded from his mobile phone had been uploaded to a website that displayed pornographic content.

She had however complained about the incident to the police prior to visiting the TRCSL.

The police had asked for evidence or traces of the suspected website to proceed with legal action but failed to do so as the victim did not know much about it and could not elucidate them to carry out a full scale inquiry..

Actually she had not seen such footage of her but only heard about it from a friend. In other words none of the two women mentioned earlier had seen the claimed footages. But the very thought that such video exists on cyberspace or were being circulated on mobile phones disturbed them immensely.

This is not a scenario that was heard or seen about a decade ago. But something that came into public notice recently. According to Mrs. Pathirana the evolution of the mobile phone had helped to aggravate the situation.

With the development of technology latest additional features came into phones that made them extremely popular among the users.

The ability to capture high resolution pictures as well as sophisticated video and voice recording options are some of the basic features these phones have.

It is just a matter of a few seconds to upload such pictures or videos to cyberspace through popular social media sites by using the mobile internet facility.

Unlike in the old days people are able to carry out so many activities with these new phones that could either be advantageous or disastrous depending on the purpose they are being used for.

For example modern television newscasting has moved to another level by giving the public an opportunity to send their own footage regarding newsworthy incidents. Viewers then have the opportunity of seeing the incident.

Some of the shocking video footage which' rocked' the country and sent chills down the spine in recent times were captured by smartphones owned by bystanders.

The sad drowning of a man who was chased into the sea by a group of policemen in Bambalapitiya, a woman slapping a man in public for allegedly outraging her modesty in Wariyapola and a policeman publicly caning a woman in Ratnapura amidst a number of onlookers, were some of the footage recorded by mobile phones and saved the day for the victims.

Not only that, there are numerous occasions where corrupt state officials and politicians were discretely captured on video while engaged in malpractices were some of the instances that came to light due to these smart features of present day phones.

At the same time there were innumerable instances where it rendered immense service by helping to take legal action is commendable.

Likewise these tools can also be used to tarnish one's image and reputation in next to no time. Nowadays people tend to trust their mobile phone like an 'all-in-one' tool that would support their day- to- day life in numerous ways.

Apart from making calls and sending short messages the users rely on them to check emails, store personal data, surf their favourite social media websites and to capture and store precious moments of their lives.

Some would even tend to capture and store the most intimate and sensitive details of their relationships and affairs that could be private and meant for that particular couple only. But there were instances where certain disturbed individuals shared intimate personal details with many.

In most cases, always the male had reportedly leaked sensitive footage of his girlfriend or partner to avenge her over a failed relationship. It is just a handful of cases that come to light as many go unnoticed by the law enforcement authorities due to unwillingness of the victim to come forward. This is why it is important to educate the public about the pros and cons of these sophisticated phones, the Deputy Director emphasised.

She said that many people often tend to forget the capabilities of a smartphone. It has the capacity to be helpful as well as to be destructive. But what is important is how to conduct one's self in society and in one's day- to- day life. If people conducted themselves in a moral manner and if the authorities performed their duties correctly then there is no necessity to become a victim of public outrage. Likewise if people would not share their intimate moments with these lifeless tools, many lives could be prevented from ending in despair and outrage.

The reports indicates that most victims were in their late teen ages or in their early twenties. In short young people who step out into society after completing their academic education are naïve and can easily fall victim to such unfortunate situations.

This is why parental vigilance is paramount regardless of age. Technology is developed for the betterment of the man and not to fall prey to its evil machinations, she said.