Sara, a college student, looked in dismay and disgust at a pornographic video recorded on a cell phone of one of her college mates. She couldn’t believe her eyes as she had always known her friend to be most honest, honourable and a pious girl. It must be a mistake, she kept on thinking, and who would record such a private affair. The thought of a pervert watching her every move and then recording it on cell phone and then being put on Internet for the whole world to see was enough to send chills down her spine.
Technology, undoubtedly, has its positive aspects as well as negatives. It is the manner in which we utilize modern technology to our advantage is what makes it useful, but if we utilize that technology to hurt some one or for destruction purposes than it just becomes a nuisance. The same goes for cell phones with built in cameras and recording capabilities.
According to a survey, the use of mobile cameras and videos has increased to an alarming level in the major educational institutes, colleges and universities of the country. A large number of incidents of blackmailing the girls by making their photographs and videos have been also observed.
According to statistics, during the previous year a total of 37 girls committed suicide in Karachi to save their honor, while the figure is 51 in Lahore and 84 collectively in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Peshawar.
The government has still not imposed a ban on the use of mobile phone cameras and making videos in the educational institutes of the country, while the cases of blackmailing and abusing the girls are being filed with almost all the police stations of every city.
Immoral photographs and videos obtained from the major educational institutes of the country are also available on the internet, which are promoting un-Islamic and immoral culture and causing increase in crime rate. The victimized girls are looking up to the Higher Education Commission and ministries for Women Development, Human Rights, Interior and Education to eliminate this major evil from the society. With the advancement in information technology, negative use of mobile cameras and long duration videos has increased to a danger level in our society.
Photographs and videos made in various events of educational institutes are released on the internet the very next day, causing family breakups, divorces and incidents of honor killing and suicides. According to administrations of educational institutes, bringing mobile phones to the institutes could not be banned, however their use could be banned. According to the NGOs working for women rights, the incidents of photography and video recordings during the leisure time in educational institutes have increased, becoming a cause of family breakups. They also claimed that photography and videos affected 13 per cent girls all over the country, while no government department was doing anything for the elimination of this evil.
The victims stated that they were mostly caught on mobile cameras while performing in various functions and events of their institutes, because there is no ban on use of mobiles. Later, boys blackmail them and force them into unethical activities by threatening to upload their pictures and videos on the internet. Meanwhile, some girls stated that boys entrapped them through false expression of love and made their videos and pictures to blackmail them later on.
Police officials say many complaints are being registered against such blackmailing. One officer said mostly people running the guest houses were found involved in this activity as they forced girls to join them though blackmailing. So it is a must for the NGOs, social organizations and ministries concerned to design a strategy to counter such ominous trends.
Although, Pakistan is known as an Islamic republic, the ratio of violating women rights is increasing day by day. It is high time, the Ministry of Women Development, Interior Ministry, Higher Education Commission, Education Ministry, local and foreign NGOs and other social organizations formulated a joint policy to counter such activities and  launched public awareness campaigns and to help girls counter such hostilities aimed at marginalizing their lot.