The camera itself isnt evil or malicious, but it wont stop you from doing whatever you want.

The camera itself isn’t evil or malicious, but it won't stop you from doing whatever you want.

When technology enables, it does so democratically—without discrimination or moral judgment. Whether you want to use a tiny cellphone camera to beam images of violent political oppression through a wall of government censorship or to take nudie shots of unsuspecting girls in public changing rooms, you can now do so with relative ease and relative anonymity. The camera itself isn’t evil or malicious, but the fact that it won’t stop you from doing whatever you want with it leads to all kinds of questions about ethics, laws, rights and responsibilities.

Easy access to cameras, instantaneous media distribution platforms, and ubiquitous Internet connectivity can turn one private moment, a sad incident, or anything at all into a public spectacle. Entire lives can be destroyed in the feeding frenzy of that ensues when scandalous images are beamed out around the world. People love to see others fall, a fact which has long been abused by sensationalist news media and but is now increasingly being exploited by individuals who simply enjoy the spectacle.

This is real. It happens on almost a daily basis. Innocuous-looking strangers now wield the power of the electronic eye, and within minutes can make a single instant a defining moment in your life.  Sexually explicit amateur video clips are sold or shared everywhere: in high-school classrooms, at neighborhood paanwalas and chaiwalas, in the slightly-higher-on-the-food-chain video rental stores, and even by mobile phone retailers. In this issue, well-known psychologist Varkha Chulani helps us unravel how the mind of a pornographer operates, and we also explore how the misuse of technology can be contained by internalizing a few simple rules. If we were setting the school curricula, we'd make a session with her mandatory—not for the kids, but for the parents.

Introducing our new contests section!

Amongst the many improvements we’ve made to the magazine this month, you’ll notice a brand-new contests section beginning on page 137. We’ve got over Rs 1.5 lakh worth of prizes up for grabs, so you could stand to win some amazing laptops, MP3 players, digital photo frames, movies, games, software and books.  So head on over and send in your entries today!