Horrific! 24-year-old rape survivor performs self abortion after watching YouTube videos

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New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a 24-year-old woman performed an abortion on herself after watching few Youtube videos. The woman, who is a rape survivor, performed the abortion procedure at her home in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, when her family members were not at home. The young woman delivered her child in the seventh month of pregnancy, following which her lover buried it.

According to the reports, the victim was allegedly raped by her lover more than 50 times since 2016 at different places. The police on Thursday said that the accused, identified as Sohail Wahab Khan, has been arrested by the Yashodhara Nagar police. 

Additionally, the victim claimed that her lover, who works as a driver, forced her to abort the child as he was already married with a son. The accused asked the woman to follow the steps shown in the YouTube video to detach the fetus from the body by cutting the cord. In the process, the woman risked her life by cutting the cord with whatever equipment she could manage in her home and kitchen. 

When the family came to know about the incident, they rushed to the police station and a case was registered against the accused, Khan. A team from Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital has been summoned to exhume the remains of the infant from Taj Nagar burial ground. But the police have not been able to trace it yet. 

Reports revealed that Khan and the victim have been in a relationship for around six years, during which the accused repeatedly exploited her promising marriage, police said. The authorities also revealed that Khan was married twice earlier in the past as well. 

Meanwhile, this incident raises numerous questions on the content being uploaded on the video streaming platform. The easy accessibility of such contents on YouTube is a matter of concern. This is not the first time someone has tried to carry out a serious medical procedure after watching a tutorial video on YouTube. 

In another such incident an investigation into the death of 10 people due to consuming hand sanitiser led the police to a school drop-out who started manufacturing hand sanitiser by watching YouTube videos. Not only these but there have been incidents when other horrific content, including suicide and sexual videos, were found on YouTube as well. 

According to a study from software nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, while a person is trusting the YouTube algorithm, they are served with more videos featuring sexualized content and false claims than personalized interests.

These incidents beg the question if there needs to be some serious monitoring of content on the video streaming website.