Sexual harassment or harassment on social media. This has been a frequent issue recently. In order to fully understand this issue and relate it to you, we have met with Elvan Kılıç, who is one of the most famous lawyers in Turkey, and received answers.
Ms. Elvan, What is Sexual Harassment or harassment?
“Harassment can be verbal or physical. Now people can reach each other very easily. How do they reach? Through social media. Everyone can easily reach anyone and can write whatever they want. The most important factor in my opinion is communication problems in cases of sexual assault or verbal and written harassment. That's what I pay attention about the most. The issue of sexual harassment through social media is very important. As you know, this is a new concept and people are just encountering it. The legislator did not require existence of physical contact to commit the crime of sexual harassment, and considered the harassment of the victim for sexual reason sufficient to constitute the crime. Therefore, it is sufficient to write to, to send photographs or proposals to people for sexual purposes on the internet in order for sexual harassment crime to be constituted. Even someone who you don't know waving to you on social media can be considered harassment. Any act that disturbs you from someone you don't know can be considered harassment. Photos sent through social media, even writing how are you can be harassment. To give a full definition; anything unsolicited that disturbs you visually or aurally is harassment.”
What should you do if you are harassed?
What should a person who has been harassed through social media do in this situation, and what path should be followed? “Such cases are valued if documented. When someone sends you an indecent photo, an annoying text, an emoji, you should take screenshots of that image or images and the sender's profile photo. After taking these, you should go to the nearest prosecution office and file a criminal complaint. The prosecution will then find the harasser by tracking the IP addresses of the computer, phone, or the device used for the act. After that person is found, the case will be opened. While the perpetrator's punishment depends on the complaint of the victim in the simplest case of sexual harassment, the condition of complaint will not be required for the investigation and prosecution to be started for the punishment of the social media harasser. This means that even if you withdraw your complaint, the trial will continue and the perpetrator will be sentenced to three months to two years, and if the offense is committed on children, s/he will be sentenced to six months to three years. However, if conditions arise, it can be decided to reverse the judgment.”
The age of starting female-male relationships has decreased to 8 in our country.
Very sadly, this situation is also seen in young children. What would you like to say about it?
“Unfortunately, 30 percent of children between the ages of 7 and 12 in our country are harassed. According to Turkstat, sexual assault, harassment and rape cases against children in Turkey has seen an increase of 400% from 2008 to the present day. Unfortunately, the reason for this increase lies in the fact that our children have easy access to social media. The biggest handicap in our country is that we have poor communication with our children. Another one is that social media platform is too free. I mean, whatever we see on the social media, children see them, too. Whatever they see, they try to practice it in real life. I’d like to give an example on this. With the factors brought by this situation, the age of starting female-male relationships went down to 8 in our country. Children cannot initiate communication fearing that their parents will be mad. As parents, we should be in frequent contact with our children. A pedagogue friend of mine says that even he cannot communicate with some children himself. The child cannot communicate because he is constantly worried.
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