Virtual harassment on the rise: Bare-chested men, porn clips, lewd comments during online classes

More and more women teachers are complaining of increasing virtual harassment during online classes. Women teachers are complaining that young men have started appearing bare-chested on the computer screens and some of them even play porn clips during the classes.

"It is clear that some girl students are sharing their login id and password with these boys who intrude into the online classes. The boys come bare-chested, wearing shorts, and pass lewd remarks," said a woman teacher.

Similar instances have been reported in, at least, two women degree colleges and one girls' school in Lucknow. The class were suspended in the institutions for some time.

"We have identified the girls who shared their login id and password with outsiders and have issued a strict warning to them. We have not reported the matter to the police because we do not want the girls to be shamed," said a senior faculty member of one of the colleges.

The college authorities in all three cases have warned the girls that they would be rusticated if they shared their login id and password with their boyfriends or brothers.

Neha (name changed), a BA first-year student, however, said, "We should not be blamed for any intrusion. It is so easy to hack into online classes and the college officials are blaming us. Why would any girl student invite trouble by sharing login id with the boys?"

Universities and degree colleges in the state have been closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and online teaching is continuing in almost all educational institutions.

Meanwhile, a well known cyber expert, Rakshit Tandon, said that schools and students had embraced technology during a pandemic but they did not know how to remain safe. For instance, students do not change the default passwords given to them. Also, they lack knowledge about security settings, he added.