“A nature and extend of cybercrime against females

and strategies used by female UG students to protect

themselves from cyber-crime”.
Ms. Snehal Dongre,
PG Student, Dr. Vaishali Tendolkar,
Department of Mental Health Principal Ms. Prajakta Jangle,
Nursing, Cum HOD of Mental Health Clinical Instructor,
Datta Meghe college of Nursing, Nursing Department, Department of Mental Health
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Datta Meghe college of Nursing, Nursing,
441110 Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Datta Meghe college of Nursing,
Email ID: 441110 Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
[email protected] 441110
Email ID:
Ms. Achal Bodele, [email protected]
PG Student, Ms. Deepti Ekhar,
Department of Mental Health Assistant Professor, Ms. Asmita Mendhe,
Nursing, Department of Mental Health Clinical Instructor,
Datta Meghe college of Nursing, Nursing, Department of Mental Health
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Datta Meghe college of Nursing, Nursing,
441110 Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Datta Meghe college of Nursing,
Email.ID: 441110 Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
[email protected] Email ID: 441110
[email protected] Email ID:
[email protected]

Abstract: In the new era of internet use, cybercrime has that are mentioned most often are online harassment
also become an increasingly big problem which women (43%), cyberstalking (28%) and unauthorized sharing of
disproportionately face as they fall victim to gender- personal content (19%). Although most of the students
specific weak spots. Due to the rampant use of exercised simple safety procedures like privacy settings
smartphone, social media, and the other digital and avoidance of strangers as friend requests, only 27
communication platform, female undergraduate (UG) percent had reported the cases formally. The main non-
students are more exposed to the different types of reporting reasons were the fear of being judged, the
cybercrime like cyber stalking, online harassment, inability to trust authorities, and the ignorance about
identity theft, and transmission of personal images and legal practices. Conclusion: the results indicate that the
information without their consent. Against these dangers, high prevalence of the cybercrime against the female UG
there have been less studies as to how young women students. It raises measures in creating awareness about
comprehend and act towards these threats. Objectives: 1. cyber-crime and cyber safety precaution to UG students.
In order to determine what type of cybercrime the female
UG students undergo. 2. To determine the magnitude of Keywords: Cybercrime, Female Undergraduate
cybercrime in female UG students. 3. To find out what Students, Cybersecurity, Online Harassment, Social
students do to guard against cyber-crime. Methodology: Media, Digital Safety, Cyberstalking, Privacy Protection.
Research Design: Cross-sectional design Population: Introduction:
Female UG students whose age is in the range of 17 to 25 The blistering development of internet and digital
years. Sample Size: 640 Sampling Technique: Simple technologies has changed the manner people interact,
random Sampling Material: A self-administered communicate and they receive information. Digital
questionnaire will be drawn up to gather quantitative data applications and platforms, namely, social media, email,
using a large sample of female undergraduate students instant messaging apps, and online resources used in the
and it will have Demographic Information (age, course of educational process have significantly become a part of
study, year level etc.), Exposure to Cybercrime (the types the daily routine of young adults, particularly,
of incidence experienced, the frequency, the platform undergraduate (UG) students, in the past several years.
involved) and Protective Strategies and Preventive These technologies are extremely convenient and provide
measures (e.g., privacy settings, reporting behavior, use numerous possibilities to learn, socialize, and self-
of antivirus tools). Results: It was found that 62 percent realize; however, they also revealed additional
of the respondents had suffered some type of cybercrime, possibilities to commit crimes in the virtual world, which
the most popular platform is the social media. The crimes are called cybercrimes.
Cybercrime is any unlawful act that is committed through due to low-level digital literacy and awareness. S. The
any digital device and network. Such offenses include study conducted by Mehta (2020) [2] into the gendered
but are not limited to hacking, phishing, and stealing aspect of cyber harassment in Indian colleges determined
identities to more specific crimes, including that females more than any other group are the targets of
cyberstalking, online sexual harassment, impersonating, cyber harassment in indulging which women and girls
and sharing with unapproved third-party private are also more likely to experience varying degrees of
information or photos. As compared to other vulnerable psychological distress. Similarly, M. Nair and A. D
members of society, women especially the young female Souza (2019) [3] addressed the issue of the unwillingness
students are becoming more and more the target of such of female victims to report the experience of cyber
crimes caused by a combination of factors relating to the victimization using the example of the negative
fact that women are more active on social media perception of cyber abuse and the lack of suitable tools to
platforms, fewer are aware of the risks of digital security address the situation as some of the most important
and the fact that men can practice such crimes easily challenges. P. The study by Singh and R. Kaur (2022) [4]
through the anonymity that websites offer. focused on the preventive cybersecurity practices of
Undergraduate female students compose a group of females within the group of students and recorded the
digitally active and socially visible persons, who are thus conclusion that most females are informed about generic
more vulnerable to cyber threats. They usually post precautions, but very few of them implement them in
personal information, images, and videos on the Internet their day-to-day experiences with digital life.
to use it academically, socially, or as the source of In A. Das and N. Patil (2020) findings, it was clarified
entertainment. It would be a pity that this presence in the that there was a lack of knowledge about cyber laws in
digital world may turn into disturbing experiences and undergraduate women as the majority of the respondents
thus is not only psychologically traumatizing, but can did not have an idea of the legal procedures and
also create a professional or even a personal failure as safeguards (5). Speaking of more general abuse patterns,
well as a damage to reputation, a loss in the digital world, A. Joshi (2021) [6] focused on the issue of online abuse
or an all-out relapse into the digital, or social life. Also, of women and women rights in India and raised criticism
victims are usually afraid of writing against these cases of the effectiveness of legal action and liability of
due to taboo politics, fear of discrimination and distrust platforms. T. Choudhury and L. R. Mishra (2020) [7]
in law enforcement agencies forcing many victims to provide an analysis of the internet use of youth in an
accept the cases silently. urban setting and observe that youth are prone to cyber
Cybercrime against women has been witnessing a sudden threat because they lack proper guidance on internet
increased rate in the Indian scenario. As per the reports safety. Further on top of this, S. Bhattacharya and R. S.
on National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), women Kulkarni (2020) [8] examined prevalence and outcomes
victims constituted a large share of cases of cybercrime of cyberbullying and harassment of college students and
registered. The nature of cybercrime is also changing as concluded that it affected their academic attention and
the newer cybercrime activity emerges like such moral well-being significantly.
morphing, sextortion and fake profiles. Schools which Similar to P. Verma and A. Yadav (2019) [9], whose
are supposed to be an ideal place to give students healthy research was dedicated to the connection between the
academic experience often lack physical facilities or experiences of cybercrimes and the legal correlations in
institutional solutions to deal with such online threats. females in colleges, only a few individuals are aware of
Although the given issue is rather significant, one will the procedures when reporting such crimes. K. According
not find a reverent number of academic researches which to Deshmukh and R. Tiwari (2021) [10], the use of social
concentrate on the way in which female UG students media has a twofold importance, on the one hand, it
view cybercrime, how often they become the victims of allows you to communicate, on the other hand, it has also
those crimes and, what is more important, what are the become a tool of committing crimes, including the
methods that they use to prevent possible ways of contribution of online stalking and false profiles. When it
criminal acts. Learning their experiences is the key to comes to a gender-specific study, A. K. Jha and M. Gupta
creation of effective prevention and response (2020) [11] found out that women experience more
mechanisms. This paper tries to address this research gap severe and frequent cases of online abuse in comparison
by examining the nature and the level of cybercrime with their male counterparts, which results in increasing
against female undergraduate students and the protective psychological stress. M. R. Bhosale and N. Shah (2022)
strategies that the students engage in. [12] surveyed the Maharashtra girls concerning the
With the help of analyzing a young, educated, and online safety awareness and identified that whereas
socially active population, this research tries to draw digital technologies are widely used, knowledge of safety
attention to real-world problems experienced by female is very a low percentage. Finally, in an attempt to
students in the digital sphere. The results will be useful to determine whether the campus-based cyber awareness
educational institutions, policymakers, and units policing campaigns work effectively, R. Iyer and T. Singh (2021)
cybercrime in creating awareness programs, designing [13] conducted an analysis concluding that, even though
effective digital safety campaigns and establishing these campaigns have produced some results, they should
supporting systems that empower young women to work be conducted regularly to alter behaviour in the long-
within the digital world safely and without any fear. term.

Literature Review:
In recent years, cybercrime among the youth in India has Objectives of the Study:
been a major worry due to its increasing number. R.  To determine what kind of cybercrime is
Gupta and P. Sharma (2021) [1] underlined that the suffered by the female undergraduate students.
escalating use of the internet in the country has increased  To determine the level of cybercrime on female
its exposure to cyber threats especially among the youth undergraduate students.
  To inquire about the measures that students and whether or not the incidences were
take in order to safeguard themselves against reported.
cybercrime. 3. Preventive Measures and Protective
Hypothesis: Strategies: Evaluations on the measures that
H1: A huge percentage of the female UG learners tend to students apply to safeguard themselves, which
be subjected to cybercrime. include the application of privacy terms,
H2: The likelihood of being the victim of cybercrime and blocking/reporting the suspicious accounts,
awareness about digital safety practices is going to be ignoring untested links, taking up antivirus
statistically significant. software, and knowledge regarding the laws
Research Methodology: and reporting abuse.
Methodology of a research is the spine of any scientific Pilot group of 30 students was asked to complete the
research. It presents the design, process, tools and the questionnaire to make sure that it was clear, reliable and
methodologies of the data collection process, analysis valid. The feedback was taken into account in order to
and interpretation. In the current research, a quantitative make necessary changes and then proceed with the main
research design was implemented to investigate the form survey.
and degree of the occurrence of cybercrime among Procedure of Data Collection:
female undergraduate (UG) students and how they The selected students in college were invited into a
protect themselves against them in an ordered manner. survey using the questionnaires by visiting them in
Research Design: colleges, as well as via Google Form, depending on the
This was done using cross-sectional survey design. Given availability of the respondents. Anonymity and
that it enables the researcher to collect data on a large confidentiality were guaranteed and participants were at
number of individuals at a specific and particular point in liberty to participate and not.
time, the design can be utilized in evaluating prevalence Techniques in Data analysis:
and distribution of patterns of experiences regarding The information obtained was coded and put on
cybercrime. Design was also used to be able to measure Microsoft excel and analyzed through Statistical Package
protective strategies applicable to students in real world of the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. These
digital environments. statistical analyses were applied:
Population and sample: Descriptive Statistics: Demographic features, categories
The sample study population was comprised of female of cybercrimes encountered, and protective measures
undergraduate students aged the range of 17 to 25 years utilized were indicated by frequencies, percentages and
taking different degree courses namely Arts, Science, mean values.
Commerce, and Technology at different colleges and Inferential Statistics: The statistical test used to verify the
universities which were selected. hypothesis and study the interrelationship between other
The study comprised 640 participants, which is adequate variables like awareness level and victimization status
to give proper sample size in terms of statistical validity was Chi-square test.
and generalizability of findings. Ethical Considerations:
Sampling Technique: All the participants signed an informed consent.
The research adopted a simple random sample value to The participation was voluntary, and students were
ensure that there was equal opportunity of a participant allowed to step out at any point of time.
being selected. The approach aids in the removal of They did not collect any personal identifiers, making this
selection bias and the representativeness of the sample process anonymous and confidential.
group to include colleges, years of study, and subjects. The researchers had adhered to the institutional ethics
Inclusion, Exclusion criteria: and sought to ensure that the psychological discomfort
Inclusion Criteria will be Female students who are associated with questioning on the past experiences of
currently undergraduate students between 17 to 25 years the cybercrime itself would be minimal.
and who use digital platform such as social media, emails
or messaging apps on a regular basis.
Exclusion Criteria: Students who do not fall in the
targeted age bracket, male students, postgraduate Table 1: Descriptive Statistics:
students and students who do not want to give consent to
participate in the study.
Cybercrime Type Percentage
The tool of the data collection:
(%)
The researcher was able to come up with a structured and
self-administered questionnaire to obtain quantitative Online harassment 43%
data. The questionnaire could be separated into three Cyberstalking 28%
primary categories: Unauthorized sharing of personal 19%
1. Demographic Profile: They would be such data
factors, age, the nature of the academic course, Identity theft 7%
the year of study, the college type (government Others 3%
or private), and the rate of practice of
internet/social media.
2. Exposure to Cybercrime: Questions that were
discussed included the forms of cybercrimes
example occurred, how frequently the
cybercrimes occurred, the platforms where
these incidences were happening (e.g.
Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and email)
 types of cybercrime, e.g. phishing, spam links, or
attempts to blackmail.
When it comes to preventive measures, many students
indicated applying simple digital protection. About 81
percent activated privacy settings in their social media
accounts in order to regulate those that see their content.
About 76 percent of them did not add strangers as friends
and 65 percent of them were afraid of sharing personal
information via the net. Additionally, 48% of the people
interviewed said that they changed their passwords
frequently, and 39% kept antivirus or anti-malware
programs so that more security is added. Interestingly, 44
percent of students reached out to block suspicious or
harassing profiles and 32 percent sought support of peers
and family members. Nevertheless, less than a quarter of
victims of cybercrime had officially reported the crime to
the law enforcement bodies, which was an indication of
deficiency in official complaint channels and assistance
to victims.
Preventive Strategy Adoption
Rate (%)
Table 2: Hypothesis Testing:
Use of privacy settings 81%
Hypothesis Test Used p-value Result
Avoiding unknown friend requests 76%
H1 Chi-Square < 0.01 Accepted
Regular password changes 48%
H2 Chi-Square < 0.05 Accepted
Use of antivirus/anti-malware tools 39%
Reporting to authorities 27%

Analysis of Hypothesis: In order to reveal statistical

Analysis of Descriptive Statistics: significance of the findings and in order to prove
The research produced enlightening statistics of the relevance of the assumptions made during the research,
online crimes that were suffered by the female two hypotheses were suggested and tested with the help
undergraduate students and the defensive mechanisms of Chi-square test of independence, which is applicable
that they implemented. The forms of cybercrimes that to categorical type of information analysis. This part
were most commonly encountered by the 640 contains the discussion and interpretation of the findings
respondents included online harassment that was retrieved by the help of hypothesis testing.
experienced by 43 percent of the victims. This involved
getting obscene messages, obscene messages or Hypothesis 1:
threatening messages, mostly via social sites. The second Justice to a strong number of female UG students being
alternate crime with a higher frequency of occurrence exposed to cybercrime.
was cyberstalking and this was experienced by 28 To verify this hypothesis, the results of the number of
percent of the students and concerned people being students who had been or had not been affected by on the
contact persistently or stalked online without their internet crime in any way were compared. Out of 640
permission. Also, the percentage of those sharing respondents, 396 students (62 percent) responded that
personal content without authority was 19, where they have experienced at least one measure of
personal data were shared and circulated without consent. cybercrime. The Chi-square test was used to establish the
Seven percent of students have experienced identity theft, significance of a difference between this observed
e.g. creation of fake profiles in their names or using their proportion and what may happen due to the chance of
photos, and the rest – 3 percent have experienced more random occurrence.
 Chi-square Value (χ²): 45.61
  Degrees of Freedom (df): 1 The study hypothesis offered support to the assumptions.
 p-value: < 0.01 It established the fact that the level of cybercrime among
Interpretation: The result is statistically significant as p- female UG students is statistically significant and that the
value is less than 0.01 thus at the 1 percent level. This level of awareness of cyber safety and the risk of
implies that chances of finding such a large percentage of becoming the victim are strongly related. The results
exposure to cybercrime by chance are very minimal. As demonstrate the need to provide formal programs to
such it is appropriate to accept Hypothesis 1 which holds address female students on the issue of digital safety and
true the fact that a considerable percentage of girls as UG equip them with information and skills.
students are exposed to cybercrime.
Hypothesis 2: Future Scope of the study:
The probability of being a victim of cybercrime and the  Demographic Groups: To gain more complete
awareness of digital safety practices have a significant picture of cybercrime in terms of gender and
relationship to one another. academic level, future research can be devoted
The hypothesis attempted to observe that students who to inclusion of other demographic groups,
were more aware and applied prevention digital including male, transgender and postgraduate
strategies had reduced chances of becoming victims of students.
prey in the cyber scandal. The data has been divided into  Qualitative Research Methods: In-depth
two representatives: interviews (or a focus-group discussion) might
1. Students who are highly awareness and also lead to deeper and more emotional
application of safety measures (e.g. discoveries beyond the psychological impact of
privacy setting, contacting people that one cybercrime on the psychic of female students.
does not know, powerful passwords).  Longitudinal Studies: A longitudinal study
2. The students that are not very aware, or would serve in monitoring the variations in
rarely practice such safety. awareness, protective behavior and the
Correlations were done between the level of awareness numbers of victimization once one has
and the status of the victims in a Chi-square analysis. conducted intervention programs in schools of
 Chi-square Value (χ²): 12.84 learning.
 Degrees of Freedom (df): 1  Impact-Based Analysis: The future study can
 p-value: < 0.05 examine the emotional, academic, and social
Interpretation: It does not exceed 0.05; this suggests outcomes of cybercrime on the victim as
that there is a statistically significant association between mental status, levels of confidence, and
the level of cyber safety awareness and the frequency of academic performance.
cybercrime. Consequently, the Hypothesis 2 is also  Policy and Institutional Framework Study: It is
accepted. This finding implies that the better informed possible to research and investigate the
and careful in demonstrating digital manners, the less functionality of the institutional responses, the
likely they were to be targeted or victimized by redressal mechanism in colleges, how the local
cybercriminals, thus the relevancy of cyber hygiene and police and cyber cells related to complaints are
digital literacy. addressing them.
 Technology-based solutions: The idea may also
Conclusions Overall Results: be to research the development and testing of
The results of the present research present an objective mobile applications or AI interventions that
picture of the increased danger of online crime targeting would assist the students in reporting,
the female undergraduate students in the country. It was blocking, and preventing cyber threats more
found that 62 percent of UG women students had been efficiently.
victims at least once of some type of cybercrime, the
most common being online harassment (43 percent),
cyberstalking (28 percent), unauthorized sharing of
personal content (19 percent). Such crimes were most References:
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