An online fight where children need to be saved
Why in News: Recently, under operation “Megh Chakra” CBI conducted searches across States and UTs against the online circulation and sharing of Child Sexual Abusive Material (CSAM).
Key Points: Laws on sharing of online Child Sexual Abusive Material (CSAM) in India:
- In India, viewing adult pornography in private is not an offence (SC in 2015 case).
- However, seeking, browsing, downloading or exchanging child pornography is an offence punishable under the IT Act.
- As per the Information Technology (IT) Act, of 2002, it is punishable to show children any pornographic content.
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are exempted from liability for any third-party data if they do not initiate the transmission.
Global effort against CSAM:
- USA: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), operates a programme called CyberTipline, for public and electronic service providers (ESPs) to report instances of suspected child sexual exploitation.
- K: Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), was established by the United Kingdom’s Internet industry to ensure a safe online environment for users with a particular focus on CSAM.
- INHOPE: It is a global network of 50 hotlines (46 member countries), that provides the public with a way to anonymously report CSAM.
- It provides secure IT infrastructure, ICCAM (I- “See” (c)-Child-Abuse-Material) hosted by Interpol, and facilitates the exchange of CSAM reports between hotlines and law enforcement agencies.
India’s efforts so far:
- ‘Aarambh India’: a Mumbai-based NGO, partnered with the IWF, and launched India’s first online reporting portal in September 2016 to report images and videos of child abuse.
- National cybercrime reporting portal: launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in September 2018 in compliance with Supreme Court directions for filing online complaints pertaining to child pornography and rape-gang rape.
- The portal was later extended to all types of cybercrime.
- National Crime Records Bureau (MHA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the NCMEC in April 2019 to receive CyberTipline reports to facilitate action against those who upload or share CSAM in India.
- The NCRB has received more than two million CyberTipline reports which have been forwarded to the States for legal action.
- Jairam Ramesh Committee recommendation (2020):
- legislative front:
- widening of the definition of ‘child pornography’
- proactive monitoring, mandatory reporting and taking down or blocking CSAM by ISPs.
- Technical front:
- building partnerships with industry to develop tools using artificial intelligence for dark-web investigations
- tracing the identity of users engaged in cryptocurrency transactions to purchase child pornography online and
- liaisoning with financial service companies to prevent online payments for purchasing child pornography.
- legislative front:
Challenges in India:
- public reporting of circulation of online CSAM is very low
- there is no system of automatic electronic monitoring
- Dependency of enforcement agencies on foreign agencies for the requisite information
What needs to be done
- India should join the INHOPE
- Establish a hotline to utilise Interpol’s secure IT infrastructure
- Collaborate with ISPs and financial companies by establishing an independent facility such as the IWF or NCMEC.
- Earnest implementation of the recommendation of Jairam Ramesh committee.
- On-streaming platforms like Netflix and social media platforms should have a separate adult section where under-aged children could be disallowed.
Conclusion:
India needs to explore all options and adopt an appropriate strategy to fight the production and the spread of online CSAM. Children need to be saved.
Mains :
- Define Child pornography and discuss its impact on children and society at large. (10M)