Consequences of Cybercrime Among Teenagers Volume 52- Issue 3

Mohammad Shahjahan¹* and Md Abdul Kader Miah²

• ¹Director (Research & Publication), Police Staff College, Bangladesh
• ²Associate Professor Department of Criminology and Police Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Bangladesh

Received: August 18, 2023;   Published: August 28, 2023

*Corresponding author: Mohammad Shahjahan, Director (Research & Publication), Police Staff College Bangladesh

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2023.52.008262

Abstract PDF

Background: Cybercrime is common phenomenon at present both developed and developing countries. Young generation, especially teenagers now engaged internet frequently and they commit cybercrime frequently in Bangladesh.

Objective: To assess consequences of cybercrime among teenagers was the motto of the study.

Methods and Tools: This study was a cross-sectional study, descriptive in nature. Non-probability accidental sampling technique has been applied to select the sample because of the nonfinite population and the sample size was 167. A printed semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data.

Results: The study identified consequences of cybercrime on various aspects of individual and social life such as lack of trust and confidence hinders profitable transaction, economic loss, tarnishing the country reputation towards foreigners, denial of innocent Bangladeshi’s opportunity abroad, loss of life in various ways, inimical to the progress and development in the country, and favor of loss of employment. Respondents thought that social network users are the prime victims of cybercrime (92.8%). Moreover, financial institutions also another victim (82.6%) followed by mobile internet users (80.2%). About 80.2% said that criminals were always on the net, 82.0% told of spend money lavishly, 67.1% in favor of riding the best automobiles, 65.9% for date the most beautiful lady, 62.3% for mainly clubbers, 47.3% on indulged in religious activities and 45.5% in live like kings in the society.

Conclusion: The study concluded that consequences of cybercrimes are alarming and increasing day by day. Finally, it is recommending that the private public partnership and execution of existing laws can be controlling this crime along with gray area of social media and net-work.

Keywords: Cybercrime; Teenagers; Consequences; Internet

Globalization process and development of the modern civilization led to the transition of industrial society to information society and introduction of modern information technologies creates new, unique opportunities for more active and efficient development of economy, politics, country, society, social consciousness and a citizen (Vladimir Golubev [1]). Bangladesh is a country of young age structure. Almost 52% of its population is below 25 years. At least 40% of its population consists of teenage. With the improvement of technology, approximation is that majority of these young people are the prime users of the ICT. It is evident based that in developing countries majority of cyber criminals are children between the age group of 6 to 18 years. So, considering the fact it is reasonable that in context of Bangladesh the scenario would be the same. As the young age people are more expose to cyber activity than their guardians so the cultural gap is there and exposing the young age people in to a new dimension of global world. Communication has become one of the most crucial integration ways in world. It has changed the dimension of people society and connectivity. So, interaction of lots also raises issues of order and violation of norms. Even mass gathering and public movements are organized through information communication way. Moreover, it is true that teenage age is the dangerous age for human life.

In this age, people choose their moral level of personality at teenage age what he/she is learning from their environment & what they will be about moral & character personality. In Bangladesh, age 13-18 years is the most dangerous age which may be considering as a teenage age.  It is the turning point for them. Later on, it is quite impossible to alter themselves after teenage age but possible with low success rate. Under such circumstances present study is going to inquiry the present scenario among the young people (13-20 years) about consequences of cybercrime.

Research aims to help or solve problems and investigate relationships of the numerous variables that exist around us. As an investigative process, research takes place at different levels of scientific sophistication. The present study on consequences of cybercrime among teenagers has been conducted in Dhaka City in Bangladesh. Explorative research design has been used in this research to explore the real situation of cybercrime among the teenagers in this area. The population of this research was not finite because internet users in cybercafés and other places could not be counted. So, people who use internet (age group 13 to 20 years) have been counted at several sites in research area. Non-probability accidental sampling technique has been applied to select the sample because of the nonfinite population and the sample size is 167. The area of Dhaka city was clustered based on the geographical distribution which is as follows:

Dhaka North

Education Zone-01: Uttara, Gulshan, Banani and surrounding areas [40 samples/respondents (10 of each area)]

Education Zone-02: Mirpur, Tejgaon, Mohamadpur and surrounding areas [40 samples/respondents (10 of each area)]

Dhaka South

Education Zone-03: Dhanmondi, Lalbagh, Shyampur and surroundings areas [40 samples/respondents (10 of each area)]

Education Zone-04: Ramna, Motijhell, Demra and surrounding areas [40 samples/respondents (10 of each area)]

In this way, (40x4) =160 samples/ respondents were being counted but for availability of data extra 7 sample/ respondents had been included with the existing sample. So, the total number of samples was counted as (160+7) =167. Both primary and secondary sources of data/in formations were used in the research. The primary data for this study were collected directly from field by using an interview schedule, which contained both structured and open-ended questions. The interviewer asked the questions and recorded their answers. The secondary data were mainly complied through searching the available literatures and mostly used as the supporting materials in considerations of better presentation of the study. Data have been collected through social survey (face to face interview with questionnaire). After collecting data, simple statistical tools like uni-variate analysis; percentage distribution have been used to analyze data. Here SPSS version 20 is used in analyzing the collected data (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Map of the study area.

(Table 1) depicts the consequences of cybercrime on various aspects of individual and social life. About 88.0% respondents thought that lack of trust and confidence hinders profitable transaction, 80.8% on economic loss, 78.4% on tarnishing the country reputation towards foreigners, 76.0% on denial of innocent Bangladeshi’s opportunity abroad, 73.7% on loss of life in various ways, 71.3% on inimical to the progress and development in the country, and 56.3% were in favor of loss of employment. (Table 2) In every criminal activity there have been main two parts- victim and offender. So cybercrime also has victims. Respondents thought that social network users are the prime victims of cybercrime (92.8%). Moreover, financial institutions also another victim (82.6%) followed by mobile internet users (80.2%). (Table 3) expresses the life style of the cybercriminals. Respondents answered in favor of different life style of the cyber criminals as like 80.2% said that criminals were always on the net, 82.0% told of spend money lavishly, 67.1% in favor of riding the best automobiles, 65.9% for date the most beautiful lady, 62.3% for mainly clubbers, 47.3% on indulged in religious activities, 45.5% in live like kings in the society and 5.4% said for some others characteristics of the cybercriminal life styles.

Table 1: Percentage distributions of the respondents by consequences of cybercrime.

Table 2: Percentage distributions of the respondents by victim of cybercrime.

Table 3: Percentage distributions of the respondents by life style of cybercriminals.

According to Constitution of Bangladesh and Right Information Law that Rights to information is a human right. It has become more and more important to everyone as information protects and develops human life every day. Understanding the essential need of security all developed countries have taken steps to address the problem on the other hand developing countries are far away from being able to guarantee these rights.  But Bangladesh Government has already shown its commitment to ICT through sharing the common vision of developing an Information Society, harnessing potential of ICT to promote development goals of the Millennium Declaration. Which include eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achievement of universal primary education and development of global partnerships for the attainment of more peaceful, just and prosperous world. Along with other countries, Bangladesh Government has recognized the central role of science in the development of information society, the indispensable role of education, knowledge, information and communication in human progress, endeavor and welfare. Government has expressed its determination to empower the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. Particularly those who are living in remote, rural and marginalized urban areas, to access information and to use ICTs as a tool to support their efforts to lift themselves out of poverty.

A safe and secure online environment enhances trust and confidence and contributes to a stable and productive community. Besides the increasing use and dependence on technology is one of the major influences on the domestic and international law enforcement operating environment. ICT impacts on law enforcement because of the way in which it can facilitate both lawful and unlawful activities. Crimes such as fraud, scams, and harassment can be facilitated by using technology which brings unique challenges to old crimes. Activities which fall under this category are often referred to as high tech crime, computer crimes or cybercrimes.  The study identified consequences of cybercrime on various aspects of individual and social life such as lack of trust and confidence hinders profitable transaction, economic loss, tarnishing the country reputation towards foreigners, denial of innocent Bangladeshi’s opportunity abroad, loss of life in various ways, inimical to the progress and development in the country, and favor of loss of employment. IBM recently announced that cyber security is the issue of the decade. The prevalence of hacks and cybercrime lurking on every virtual corner seems to affirm this sentiment. On both a professional and personal level, everyone should be alert to cyber security and its consequences. However, this is not always the case. People can easily become complacent or even apathetic towards IT security because there is seemingly a lack of real-world consequences.

(Pinchot, et al. [2]) said that sharing information on social network sites could potentially expose users to becoming victims of a cyber-related crime. This exploratory study of 146 undergraduate and graduate students examines the over sharing of information on Facebook and the possible consequences associated with this action. Research has found that students are concerned about sharing information and show concern about the effects of sharing information on Facebook. The results of the study reveal that students are worried about criminal activity such as identity theft, unauthorized access to online banking accounts, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, and child predators. Can information that is being shared on Facebook contribute to cybercrime? Should people think twice before posting personal information online?  The harm arising from cybercrime and technology misuse in our society is on the increase and is rapidly claiming attentions both nationally and internationally. The consequence of a single successful cyber-attack can have far-reaching implications which may involve huge financial losses, theft of intellectual property, loss of confidence and trust between sellers and customer which eventually affects the economy of a nation (Mosud [3]). Under this study the consequences of the cybercrime among teenagers of Bangladesh were investigated at field level. Almost all the research work is some sorts of new and full of some new problems, for which it is needed to tackle some new thinking, new out looking as well as new understanding.

It is recognizable that no research can be conducted without any problems or limitations. So, to do that during the study there were many problems to be faced. Firstly; the research work had to complete within a limited period of time and it was not possible to collect more in-depth information. Secondly; Lack of sufficient theoretical knowledge on the proposed issue creates some problems to conduct this study properly or meticulously. Thirdly; as the respondents had no idea about the study, they were highly apprehensive about the purpose of the study. However, when they understood that the present study was academic, they were convinced and agreed to cooperate. Fourthly; Several visits were done to get information. Despite these limitations, the study was conducted smoothly as had spirit and interest.

Bangladesh is passing a crucial time to change a traditional society to a digitally converting society. This critical situation has created lots of new crime along with traditional cultural crime. All of them cybercrime is new addition in Bangladeshi society. So, it is high time to make concentration about the matter both from related government agencies and community people.

This was a self-funding study. There was no conflict of interest.

1. Golubev Vladimir (2005) Problems of counteraction to cybercrime and cyberterrorism in Ukraine. Computer Crime Research Center Retrieved.
2. Pinchot J, Paullet K (2012) What’s in your profile? Mapping Facebook profile data to personal security questions. Issues in Information Systems 13(1): 284-293.
3. Mosud Y Olumoye (2013) Cybercrime and technology misuse: Overview, Impacts and Preventive Measures. European Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology 1(3): 10-20.