Narendra Modi govt takes Interpol help to crack down on online child pornography
With the help of the Interpol and the Internet Watch Foundation, the Centre has managed to block more than 3,500 websites peddling child pornography in the last four months.
In Short
- 3,522 child porn websites blocked in the last four months, the Centre said.
- Centre took the help of international bodies like Interpol.
- Help was sought as most child porn websites were hosted outside India.
The Narendra Modi government has joined forces with international bodies like the Interpol and Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to end the menace of child pornography and online abuse of kids in India. With their help, a total of 3,522 such sites have been blocked in the past four months, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Friday.
The apex court had on February 24 noted that there is a surge in photographs and videos on the internet showing kids being sexually exploited and a sharp rise in the number of child pornographic sites while it asked the Centre to act immediately.
"The Interpol maintains a 'worst of list' prepared by the Internet Watch Foundation. They have shared it with the CBI and the government is now ordering the blocking through select internet service providers. Last blocking was done in June 2017 and around 3,522 websites have been blocked," said the Centre's affidavit filed by additional solicitor general Pinky Anand.
According to experts, the advent of digital cameras and camcorders has fuelled an explosion in such material available online.
Mail Today reported in December that the Centre had roped in international police agency Interpol to fight child pornography. The government said an inter-ministerial committee has been formed for curbing online child sex abuse material.
It recommended that till such time a centralised mechanism is built in India to dynamically monitor websites and URLs containing online child sex abuse material (CSAM), the relevant internet service providers should disable or remove such content dynamically based on IWF resources.
It said "the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued an order to Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) and Department of Telecommunications to disable or remove access to child porn sites by adopting IWF list to prevent distribution and transmission of online CSAM into India. The order is to be implemented by relevant ISPs in India".
NO CENTRALISED MECHANISM IN INDIA
Elaborating on why international help was sought, the affidavit said most of the child sex abuse material is being hosted outside India and the websites/URLs to such content are dynamic in nature and frequently changing, making it difficult to block such content.
"No centralised mechanism exists in India to monitor online CSAM", it said. Experts say the advent of digital cameras and camcorders has fuelled an explosion in such material available online.
In 2015, there were 96 reports in India of children being sexually exploited in internet imagery, a rise of 140 per cent from the previous year, according to National Crimes Records Bureau data.
The SC was hearing PILs filed by Indore-based advocate Kamlesh Vaswani and Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association seeking a direction to the government to adopt various measures for the effectiveness of blocking child pornography on Internet.
Interpol is a major source of getting access to websites containing child sexual abuse. The agency maintains a regular update of the "worst" of such sites.
Interpol was tasked by the UN General Assembly in 2009 to maintain and disseminate to the national central bureaus a worldwide list of URLs, which contains these websites that publish the most severe child abuse material.
Ordering a crackdown against child porn, the SC had said that one needs to draw a distinct line between art and obscenity, and child pornography cannot be justified in the name of freedom of speech and expression.
Not just child porn. The SC had asked the Centre to find out "ways and means" to block all kinds of pornography on the internet, saying obscenity, which is a crime under Indian law "cannot be allowed to be perpetuated".
Significantly, the court is also exploring possibility of banning watching of pornographic materials in any form at public places.
The SC's instructions came despite stiff objection from the Centre, which said it only favoured banning child pornography sites and not "going beyond" considering a citizen's right to privacy and did not want to be seen as "moral policing".
But the court directed the government to "develop a mechanism" for blocking all porn sites with the help of Information Technology experts and service providers.
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