Kids need to learn that all actions have consequences

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A 13-year-old boy was recently traced as the person who had sent out a hoax mail threat to Delhi airport, according to reports. During the investigation, the child admitted it was a prank. He was trying to check if the authorities could track him down. To put this into context, on June 4, an email was received that an Air Canada flight, which was to depart in a few minutes for Toronto carried a bomb. However, the threat later turned out to be a hoax. There was significant disruption as there was a massive security response. It turned out that it was an empty threat, and the culprit was a teenager.

The boy said that he sent the email just for fun and was inspired by a similar hoax at the Mumbai airport.

Much more awareness is needed of the grave ramifications of such fun. For youngsters, and regrettably some adults, too, a device in hand, a few clicks of the button and it is ‘fun time' within a few seconds or minutes. The relative ‘anonymity' the Internet gives also means that there is a false sense of security and the feeling that one can say anything, disguise identities, target someone and never be caught.

Awareness programmes about the seriousness of such actions must begin in school. Parents must also teach their children that issuing such threats, sending hateful emails, making false addresses and pretending to be somebody you are not are all highly dangerous actions. Even joking about ‘bombs' and ‘terror' can land one into very serious trouble.

Initiatives by the police, cyber cell, colleges, schools and non-governmental organisations working in the youth space can come together and this can be extremely effective. Even warnings/signage citing that all this is an offence on public infra and in buildings will be an effective deterrent. If undeterred, punitive action must be highlighted so that people are informed there are consequences for this.