ISLAMABAD: To protect vulnerable segments of society, including women and children, from emerging online threats, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued guidelines to curb online exploitation.

PTA’s report ‘Online Safety Guide’ has cautioned parents that pressure from social media can negatively affect anyone, especially the youth, and at times the content can persuade an individual to take up “dangerous hobbies or perpetuate harmful stereotypes”.

“Anything that is uploaded and shared online such as a photo, video or text is content but mainly the young adults have to recognise and avoid online content that is harmful, blasphemous, pornographic, etc, as many of such contents could land them in trouble,” the PTA added.

It urged women to intimate the authorities concerned if someone sends them unwanted content. The PTA stated that there are new illegal modes such as “online grooming” which are becoming a serious threat to youngsters. It defined “grooming” as tactics used by abusers via the internet to “sexually exploit and manipulate young people and children”.

Authority asks youth to beware of ‘fake news’, ‘anti-state content’, ‘online grooming’

“A person contacting you online could be a stranger or someone you already know or have met, they can be someone who is older or close to your age, the predators will also lie about their gender, where they live, and their actual motivations,” the PTA said.

“Online predators will target children and young adults on platforms and apps that young people are most likely to use, including job forums and gaming sites, and the predator will often start a friendly conversation or offer advice to gain the victim’s trust before asking them for their phone number to chat privately,” the guidelines added.

“Be careful of anyone online who gives lots of compliments for no reason, contacts you multiple times and in different ways, and insists on meeting [you] but would insist to keep the relations private,” the PTA guidelines said.

The youngsters have been warned that people who want to inflict harm do not want other people to know about their identity, and would ask to contact them only when the victims are alone. “Once the trust has been established, the groomer might ask the victim for money or other favours, by making false claims and promises about their relationship with the victim to get what they want,” the guidelines have said. The PTA stated that the youngsters needed to protect themselves from unwanted contacts and needed to go through online friends’ and followers’ lists and delete contacts that look “suspicious”.

The most common kind of online threat is a “sextortion scam” where the extortionist threatens to release the victim’s “explicit pictures or videos” to the victim’s friends and family if not granted monetary and other favours.

The PTA said, “Instead of giving in to the blackmailer’s demands, consider support from a trusted friend or a family member and report to the concerned law enforcement agency.”

The guidelines stated that people unknowingly get involved in illegal acts, like online hate -- posts about a person or community based on race, religion, ethnicity, disability, or gender. Other such violations are contents in music videos, movies, online games, or advertisements that is pornographic, sexually explicit in nature, unrealistic relationship expectations, lack of consent depraved, and violent behaviour towards women.

One of the key violations that used can fall in is “anti-state content”, which is also a violation of the law. The PTA said that “fake news” was a violation that needed to be avoided, which includes disseminating information that is misleading or distorted but made to look like an accurate representation of a situation. It was essential to fact-check everything and include sources when posting information online, it added.

The PTA also guided youngsters that their posts and actions on various online social platforms define their image that could be used by anyone including potential employers, universities, and others. “The image could be positive or negative and it would remain on the internet for a very long time, therefore it was needed to have positive online history,” the PTA said.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2023