BOYS LOCKER ROOM 

Social media is a platform that helps us to participate in social networking, to

connect and to communicate. We can learn new things and inspire others. It
creates new employment opportunities as well. It influences both positive and
negative ways. Positive in the way that it allows us to connect to people
around the globe and gives us various opportunities to learn and grow. But it
gets dark due to all the bullying and unnecessary drama created. Fake accounts
and rumors threaten people's safety. One such threat was caused by the "Bois
Locker Room". 

 The incident occurred on the social media platform. The Bois locker room is a
private Instagram group of young schoolboys from south Delhi. The group
shared morphed photos of teenage girls, making violent and explicit comments
about their bodies, sharing gang-raping fantasies. 

Screenshots of their disturbing chats were spread by some influencers.

Inspired by the many other influencers and users also spread screenshots from
the chatroom. The people from the group didn't apologize, rather created
another group- "BoisLockerRoom 2.0" with the message to join with fake
accounts. The disturbing part is that some of the group members were minors
themselves.
Many other such groups were also brought to light. The screenshots showed
how these minor boys from good families and elite schools were rating women
slut-shaming them and body shaming them. The boys supposedly don't know
what consent means. 

Many girls restarted the #MeToo Movement saying their cyberbullying and
assault stories.  These brave girls shared their stories exposing some of the
boys. This inspired many others to raise their voice against such people. Not
just girls but guys also supported and expressed their grief. People involved in
sports expressed their disgust at the username chosen and said that it was a
sacred place for them as they discussed their wins , failures, strategies, and
encouraged each other. 

The reaction went different ways, many people supported the women who
shared screenshots. They thanked them for raising their voice and for bringing
everything to light. Some people ignored it, titling it as "boys will be boys" and
"this happens every day". Some people attacked the women for raising their
voice accusing them of destroying the minors' life. 
The members of the group chat criticized the women and created group chats
slut-shaming them and threatening them of gang rape. 
This was soon brought into the notice of Delhi Police and Delhi Commission for
Women( DCW) who investigated the case thoroughly and  issued a notice.
 

A minor was apprehended soon after this. “These were the same people who
were making plans to gang rape girls and were making objectionable
comments about them. Such persons, irrespective of where they are and
whether the lockdown is in place or not, should not be spared,” the DCW chief
Swati Maliwal said. 

These boys were soon arrested. Investigators said the group had 22 members
in all, and two of them were adults studying in colleges. The police have
invoked sections of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code
dealing with the distribution of pornographic content and making
objectionable remarks about women. “Once the screenshots emerged in the
public domain, the group was deleted and another one created. Some girls
were added in the new group to mislead police,” said an investigator as
reported by Hindustan Times.