MUMBAI: The internet is a great place to make friends; a better place for faceless predators. Every Like, Share, Comment, Tweet has a butterfly effect. It has the power to change someone's life in a microsecond...A certain Miss Shetty found this out the hard way. Like millions of other girls of her age, she also innocently uploaded her picture on a popular networking site. Some boys started harassing her by posting photo-shopped nude pictures of her. Traumatized, she went into depression and became suicidal. What was her mistake…just that she was the victim of cyber abuse like many others sailing in the same boat?

There's only one way to bring order to this chaos. AWARENESS. Taking an initiative of arming the youth with awareness against cyber abuse, MTV ACT under MTV, the leading youth iconic brand, in association with the NGO, Crime Awareness Society (CCAS) brings ‘MTV WEBBED - Cyber Abuse. Real Stories’, a new drama series that every youth will relate to! The show will feature a series of fictional representations of real life cases and incidents that the youth encounter on the web. This show is backed by MTV’s own pro social platform MTV ACT that engages with over 20+NGOs and independent organizations to support cause based initiatives across verticals. Starting 14 September, 2013, Saturday at 7pm, ‘MTV WEBBED’ targets the youth between the age group of 15 to 24 years.

Speaking about the MTV WEBBED, MTV India, EVP and business head Aditya Swamy said, “MTV has always been a mirror of what's happening in the world of the millenials and WEBBED is that reflection. Given our obsession with pop culture, we can how young people are constantly changing. A generation of internet natives, they enjoy the benefits of being connected but whats changing is the dangers that this connectivity poses. The only way to protect yourself is to THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK”

A ten part series, MTV WEBBED will have youth icons, from television heartthrobs Jay Bhanushali, Siddharth Shukla, Karan Vir Bohra, Ritwick Dhanjani, to choreographer Salman Khan, to the beauties Pratyusha Banerjee, Sana Syed, Priya Wal and singer Chang. Each will host an episode and will emphasize the natural instinct of youth who let curiosity take the better of them only to regret it later and face the brutal consequences.

With new cases coming to light each day, cyber abuse can no longer be swept under the carpet and given a blind eye to. In the recent times, cyber abuse has grown exponentially with each year without showing any signs of slowing down. 2012 saw 47.9 percent cyber forgery and 39.1 percent cyber fraud being reported under IPC category for cyber crimes. Under IT Act, hacking with computer systems with 49.2 percent and obscene publication/transmission in electronic form with 32.6 percent were the main cases. Through this show, MTV along with CCAS wishes to spread awareness and educate the youth about the correct safety measures. It’s time to raise questions and give them a clear understanding of how their digital entitles can be abused and taken advantage of without necessary precautions.

CCAS president Milind Agarwal said, “In the last few years, we have seen an increase in the number of cyber abuses being reported. Most of the youngsters do not know how to tackle this issue and what precautions are to be taken. This show will act as a medium for us to reach out to the numerous victims of cyber abuse. Also MTV enjoys a huge fan following amongst today’s youth and hence this was the perfect platform for us to reach out to all the teenagers who are and might face this problem.”

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