Digital Trafficking - Story of a kid fascinated by the digital world.

Think of the youngest kid in your family who plays general mobile multiplayer games. A small kid who is excited and intrigued by knowing new people. What if that kid meets someone wrong? Someone who manipulates the kid to take steps that can ruin their whole life or the life of the parents. Sounds weird right, Makes you feel afraid and creates an urge to check up on the kids at your house right? But why? 

We are not even able to think of such a thing right. but here I have a story of a little 13-year-old boy who got influenced in such a way that changed his and his parent's way of living. 

The image shows how bound we are to our digital devices.

A little boy from a small town Sikar, in Rajasthan. A small happy family of the boy and both his working parents. Working parents, a basic reason that drove the boy to the mobile game called Pubg and meeting some random boys from Bangalore. Talking with the boys, and playing with them was just like a regular thing for the kid. Who knew that these boys were not just some random players. His parents were really tired and frustrated with him playing online games every time so they restricted him a lot. They used to go out for work, and the boys went to school daily. Day by day things got weird, he started believing them and listening to those strangers all the time. One day his parents as usual went to work but the kid was at home. He went to his neighbor and asked them to give him some money for the exam as his mother forgot to give it. As neighbors in our country, we tend to help and not ask a lot of questions. 

Who knew, what this little boy was up to with that money? The neighbors just helped, unaware of the intentions of that little boy. Once he got that money, he packed his bag and went to Bangalore at the request of those strangers. What was going to happen to him? Who were these strangers? What will they do now? 

These strangers were people who sold kids to different places for slavery and whatnot. The kid was being taken to Dubai and his parents knew nothing. His father was a reputed man, he had connections that helped him get in contact with Bangalore police, who tracked the kid and saved him. But what about others? What about the kids who are from middle-class or poor families? Kids of people who don't have contacts? What will happen to them? 

Kids from such a background, are sold, kidnapped, and abducted for various reasons that include slavery, robbery, sex work, terrorism, and uncountable terrifying reasons. A kid who was a victim of digital trafficking, something that will always have an impact on his mental health. 

Recently an article was published in, The Hindu newspaper stating that 13.13 lakh girls and women went missing between 2019 and 2021. Kidnapping and abducting are something we are not getting rid of any time soon. Not only females but according to NCRB data on kidnapping and abduction, is something that is faced by people all around. Cities like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar have reported the most cases in the same areas till the year 2021. The reports updated by NCRB on its site are the data till the year 2021. Most missing cases are from the age group of 12 to 16 years, the teenage. The age when kids get rebellious and want to explore new things. This is the stage where kids get attracted to social media and games and get excited by anything new. Around twenty-five thousand kids of this age group went missing in the year 2021, from which around twenty thousand were female and five thousand were males. 

From all this data and the story above it is important for us to understand how the digital world is not all glitters. Some things are to be kept away from kids. We as parents or older brothers and sisters need to keep a little check on our younger generation about what they are doing. Also, the government must make some strong rules for kids using phones playing online games, and using social media. 

We all say that government is to be blamed, they don't check or take action against it, but is it possible to keep a check on every little kid, from every little house? Our mobile phones are built with features like child locks, which allow us to keep certain applications away from our kids. We as people of a responsible country have to make sure that the content our kids watch is right or not. Do not force your kids or become arrogant to them. Be their friend, tell them that they can talk to you and they do not need any strangers. We have to keep ourselves and our kids safe. we have to be more aware and keep our kids safe. 

Thank you for reading, I will be back with a whole new topic and interesting stories. Till then, keep reading.