Nearly 73 percent of women in the world had been victims of cyber sex offences, Women In Need (WIN) Batticaloa District Coordinator Sangeetha Dharmaranjan said. She was addressing an awareness programme on cyber crimes for Batticaloa Police under the theme Shatter the Silence and Win Your Life.
The programme was funded by the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) and focused on how certain individuals and websites implement sexual exploitation as a means of extortion.
Dharmaranjan said that even though Women and Children Bureaus exist at all police stations, due to social stigmata and shame, females withhold complaints related to sexual harassment or assault.
The programme also highlighted the need for police personnel to be trained in handling cyber-related offences with the aim of not just controlling, but also preventing future occurrences of such crimes as well.
“WIN provides support for women and children who are victims of domestic abuse, focusing on maintenance and protection, but we require assistance to tackle cases where individuals are harassed through the sharing of explicit content on social media. Hence, it is necessary that the police are made aware of the severity of such crimes and are also provided with the proper training in order to address such issues,” Dharmaranjan added.
Batticaloa ASP L. R. Kumarasiri, WIN Legal Advisor Attorney-at-Law K. Thiyagesweran, Trincomalee Police IT Department OIC Chief Inspector S. Weerasinghe, Polonnaruwa Police IT Department OIC Malinda Banda, 14 other OICs from around the country and 22 Batticaloa Crime Branch officers participated.
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