Female students from universities have been advised to strengthen their security alertness. In addition, judges have cautioned against the sharing of personal information over the internet. These warnings came following the numerous cases involving murders of young women and the reported disappearances of others, which have been reported in the recent months.

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China's superior court disclosed on Tuesday that seven cases involved the slaying, raping, kidnapping, or defrauding of women and girls committed by people the victims met online. These cases, according to the judges, should serve as warnings to people against trusting other internet users they meet online.

Among the seven cases related to online meetings, three defendants were sentenced to death for the murder, kidnapping, and rape of the victims.

"All convicts in these cases took advantage of the Internet, making use of the trust established online to commit their crimes," shared Yan Maokun, the Criminal Department deputy chief judge at the Supreme People's Court.

According to Yan, the introduction of social media platforms, such as QQ and WeChat, has increased the occurrence of the aforementioned crimes.

One of the notorious cases involving online platforms was that of Xiao Kechen in June 2013, who raped a 15-year-old girl he interacted via WeChat. After raping the victim, he even robbed the girl of her cellphone and 20,000 yuan or $3,265.

"Victims have little awareness of self-protection and easily trust strangers on popular instant messaging tools," the deputy chief judge shared.

Another department judge, Ran Rong, advised the girls and women to constantly informed their friends and family members of their whereabouts, especially when they go out on their own or attend to emergencies. In addition, Ran said that these instant messaging tools should be used to the advantage of potential victims rather than as something criminals might use utilize for evil purposes.

"A young woman can take a picture of a taxi license plate and send it back to her parents via WeChat if she has to go out alone, or map apps can be used to check whether the driver is taking the right route," Ran advised.  

Tagsonline, QQ, Xiao Kechen, Ran Rong, Yan Maokun, criminal, Murder, Rape, Kidnapping, Fraud