Last updated on October 12, 2022
Names and places mentioned herein are hypothetical.
Ms. Madhavi is a government school teacher . Due to COVID-19 – pandemic the education system changed into online. Most of the school lectures were delivered via different online platforms, such as Zoom, Skype, Teams, Whatsapp etc.. This was a new experience to students and the teachers. Teachers had to adopt to teach online while students had to study through online means.
According to the new teaching procedures, teacher lets the class participants to join in, by accepting their login/request to the session. On this particular day Madhavi accepted a request which is no quite familiar to her. She accepted the request to join the session assuming that is one of her students. The common practice of conducting a lesson is via both voice and video. So the teacher can see her students and vice versa. Apparently, the newly joined student was not visible or responding her requests to introduce him/herself. Madhavi had no way to identify the student or able to see. Sometime later the “new student’ was no more there.
![online-classes](https://www.hithawathi.lk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/online-classes-200x300.jpg)
Meanwhile what happen at the other end?
The “unknown student” was able to click some snapshots and few video clips during Madhavi’s lesson. The “unknown student” had edited and developed some photos and video clips which can be used to bully Madhavi and do “hate speech” against her. This person had spread those posts and video clips among public via different kind of common social media applications.
Coming back to Madhavi- She had no idea what was going on. She was not a quite social media follower. Madhavi was shocked when she got several calls from her friends and family members hearing this virally spread news of her. She had no clue on what to do in a such situation, moreover she was panic because it was something she couldn’t imagine.
One of her friends advised her about Hithawathi. She immediately dialled the number she got and reached Hithawathi. She explained the story to the female officer there.. the officer advised her and talked very calmly. Then she got to know that there is are ways to remove such content and handle these kinds of cases. Madhavi was very happy and very thankful about Hithawathi’s service.
Precaution tips:
- You MUST verify the members who are connected
- You must be very care full when working online
- Contact 1938 (Women Helpline – Ministry of Women & Child Affairs) for legal support if you are a helpless woman in a situation like this.
- Contact 1926 (Special Mental Health Hotline) or Sumithrayo when you feel down due to these type of incidents.
- Report if the content (images, videos, etc…) you appear is published without your consent; Contact Hithawathi for support, if necessary.