In UP, police to punish youth bitten by selfie bug

The UP police will punish those caught taking selfies in public spaces.

Lucknow, June 20: Narcissism has a new name. It's called selfie mania.

Go anywhere, you will find people busy clicking selfies in their smartphones to be posted on various social media platforms. The latest fad, especially prevalent among the youth, has its downside too.

In fact, India recorded highest numbers of selfie-related deaths in the world. That's the findings from a new study by scholars from Carnegie Mellon University and Indraprastha Institute of Information Delhi.

The analysis--provocatively titled "Me, Myself and My Killfie: Characterising and Preventing Selfie Deaths"-- found that of 127 reported selfie deaths from March 2014 to September 2016, a whopping 76 deaths occurred in India alone.

In order to rein in the selfie-clicking youth, the Uttar Pradesh police decided to crack the whip on them. The latest decision has been taken by the Moradabad police as selfie mania is proving "dangerous" to all.

"These days, there is a selfie mania among youth. But at times this becomes dangerous for their and others' lives as well," superintendent of police, Moradabad, Ashish Srivastav, was quoted as saying by ANI.

"We have decided to take action against those taking selfies and threatening people's lives. We will penalise them," he added.

In March, after the Yogi Adityanath government took the reins of the state, the police started taking action against young men found harassing women in public spaces under its anti-Romeo campaign.

The anti-Romeo squads of the police elicited significant amount of criticism for targeting young men and women talking and enjoying good times in each other's company.

Now, we have to see if the Moradabad model of punishing selfie crazy youth would be emulated in other parts of the state and the country. Till then, don't go overboard to take selfies and stay safe.

OneIndia News