Effects of Social Media on Cybercrime

Social media is a platform used to exchange information in the form of ideas, thoughts, videos, photos, and much more. The following activities take place; photo sharing, blogging, social gaming, social networking, video sharing, business networking, virtual worlds, reviews, and even online trading. Most of the time, people do not meet unless they studied together, work in the same place, or are neighbors. Most of the social media sites known are Whatsapp, snap chat, facebook, youtube, Instagram, linked-in, Tumblr, among others. Users usually use gadgets such as computer, tablets, smartphones connected to the internet. Internet ensures that the user sends and receives information. The users are generally in a position to choose what to post. Many business people have taken advantage of social media popularity to reach out to potential customers. They post all that pertains to their work for potential buyers to get the information. Most youth also engage in Social media relationships. Also, most parents leave their kids with the housekeepers who resort to giving kids phones to avoid disturbance. What happens next, no one will tell. Governments and politicians are also not left behind, as they can communicate with their constituents and voters.

Social media has become a powerful tool, and it has reduced the world to a global village. A lot of information is shared, and you never know the intentions of the person on the receiving end. People with ill motives (harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm, or loss) take advantage of this, and they can access this information from the social sites through their computers by hacking, spamming or phishing. Offenses such as child phonography and hate crimes can also be committed in social media by evil people, and this is called cyber-crime. Cybercrime threatens a person or a nation's security and financial health. Cybercrimes include hacking, copyright infringement, unwarranted mass-surveillance, extortion, child pornography, and child grooming. In detail, we have them as below;

Hacking, as one of the cybercrimes, is the most common of all and it refers to unauthorized intrusion into a computer or a network. The person engaged in hacking activities is known as a hacker and is responsible for altering the system or security features to accomplish an unintended goal. Hackers employ a variety of techniques for hacking. First is Vulnerability scanner which checks computers on networks for known weaknesses. Second is Password cracking, and this recovers passwords from data stored or transmitted by computer systems. Third is Packet sniffer, and it captures data packets to view data and passwords in transit over networks. Fourth is Spoofing attack, and it involves websites which falsify data by mimicking legitimate sites and thus treated as trusted sites by users or other programs. Fifth, we have a rootkit, which represents a set of applications which work to subvert control of an operating system from legitimate operators. Sixth is the Trojan horse, and this serves as a back door in a computer system and allows an intruder to gain access to the system later. Seventh are Viruses, and they are self-replicating programs spread by inserting copies of themselves into other executable files. Finally, we have Key loggers designed to record every keystroke on the affected machine for later retrieval. Therefore, hacking is very dangerous because powerful and confidential information can get into the wrong people and can bring security issues, deaths, and serious thefts.

Another of the cybercrime issues is Copyright infringement. It is where a particular product or business model is copied and replicated elsewhere. The original owner of the idea is not acknowledged, and if the product had no patent, the original owner might end up losing it. Therefore, theft is real in social media.

Sextortion, on the other hand, is a threat to expose sexual images to make a person do something. It is outright blackmail. These threats come from both strangers met online and once intimate romantic partners. It is also becoming common, as people use it, especially the lazy and not willing to work hard kind of people, to extort cash from the victims. People also use sextortion to get information, which most of the time is classified and the victim can access. Most victims end up imprisoned, especially if blackmailed into committing a crime. Some will even end up dead, and the person of interest will be the person who blackmailed them.

Child pornography is also another form of cybercrime. It is created by taking pictures, videos, or sound recordings of children wearing less clothing or none at all or having sex. It is usually a form of child sexual abuse as they are created by taking photographs and videos of a sexually abused child. Others do this by creating images of children on the act of sexual abuse, on a computer, and it is called simulated child pornography. Child pornography at the end is not good, and it affects the victims. For instance, a child might have difficulty sleeping and struggle to concentrate or cope with school work. Moreover, they may become withdrawn, uncommunicative and angry or upset. Additionally, the affected may live with anxiety and depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, difficulty coping with stress, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, feelings of shame and guilt, drug and alcohol problems, relationship problems with family, friends, and partners.

We also have Child and young people grooming as a form of cybercrime. Grooming is where the offender befriends and establishes a good relationship with the child or the young person with the end objective of sexually abusing them. Sometimes the person developing that connection with a child also does it with a family member to avoid any form of suspicions of his real intentions. The other people can thus trust them, especially when they hanging out with the kid physically or when online. Children and young people undergoing grooming can be sexually abused, exploited, or trafficked. Anybody can be a groomer no matter age, gender, or race. Grooming can take place over a short or long period of times, either online, in person or both, by a stranger or someone they know. When a child undergoes online grooming, groomers may hide who they are by sending photos or videos of other people. Sometimes this will be of someone younger than them to gain the trust. Grooming effects are the same as child pornography; Anxiety, Depression, stress suicidal thoughts, among others.

The next on the list is Mass surveillance. Mass Surveillance is sophisticated monitoring of the whole or part of a population by a country, and it aims at a particular group of people. The scrutiny is often carried out by governmental organizations, but it may also be carried out by corporations on behalf of governments or as their initiative. Mass surveillance violates privacy rights, limits civil and political rights and freedoms, and under some legal or constitutional systems, it is illegal. Increasing mass surveillance could also lead to a surveillance state where civil liberties get infringed, and political dissent undermined.

Finally, we have hate crimes. It is one of the most common in social media sites. People post hate messages against a particular tribe, community, gender, or race. Most of these messages are usually political and against a specific tribe. Such hate messages lead to a lack of unity amongst the citizens and even a lack of job opportunities. They also might lead to deaths, especially when elections are approaching. Messages against a particular gender may make the group have low self-esteem hence self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Sometimes people commit suicide.

In conclusion, social media has aggravated the cybercrime. From what we have discussed, most people are disposing of themselves in social media sites from posting everything they do at work to their private lives. Information is at the disposal of everyone. You never know who is watching. People visit there for different reasons, and most of them mean no good. Therefore, we should be cautious about the kind of information we share on social media sites. Furthermore, our passwords should be secure enough and at all cost, avoid sharing with anyone. We should also consider, monitoring whom our children interact and spend time with, either online or in person. Social media without cybercrimes or minimum crimes can be good. Let us all be vigilant.