Lok Sabha Question No. 2491 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-08-01
Subject: Cyber Bullying
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: K. C. VENUGOPAL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2491

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 01.08.2018

## CYBER BULLYING

## 2491. SHRI K.C. VENUGOPAL:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of action taken by the Government to curtail the growing incidents of cyber bullying and blackmail and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has formulated any comprehensive mechanism to curb and monitor cyber crimes in the country;
- (c) if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government has taken any measures to stop the incidents of circulation of videos of sexually abused children and women through social media; and
- (e) if so, the details and the status thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR   ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI S.S. AHLUWALIA)

(a):  The  Information  Technology  (IT)  Act,  2000  has  adequate  provisions  to  deal  with prevailing cyber crimes. Further, sections 354A and 354D of Indian Penal Code provides punishment for cyber bullying and cyber stalking. Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an Advisory  on  4.1.2012  on  Preventing  &  combating  Cyber  Crime  against  Women  and Children,  wherein  it  was  advised  to  States/Union  Territories  to  specifically  combat  the crimes  in  forms  of  cyber  stalking,  cyber  bullying,  child  pornography  and  exposure  to sexually explicit material etc.

(b) and (c): Government has taken a number of legal, technical and administrative measures to prevent cyber crimes.  These inter alia, include:

- (i) Enactment of IT Act, 2000 which has adequate provisions to deal with prevalent cyber crimes.
- (ii) Cyber  Crime  Cells  have  been  set  up  in  all  States  and  Union  Territories  for reporting and investigation of cyber crime cases.
- (iii) Government has set up cyber forensic training and investigation labs in the States of Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir for training of law enforcement personnel and Judiciary in these States.
- (iv) Government has formulated Cyber Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks for implementation by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors. Regular workshops

are conducted for Ministries, Departments, States & Union Territories and critical organizations  to  sensitize  them  about  the  cyber  security  threat  landscape  and enabling them to prepare and implement the Cyber Crisis Management Plan.

- (v) Government  has  launched  the  Cyber  Swachhta  Kendra  (Botnet  Cleaning  and Malware  Analysis  Centre).  The  centre  is  providing  detection  of  malicious programs and free tools to remove the same for banks as well as common users.
- (vi) Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  issued  National  Information  Security  Policy  and Guidelines  (NISPG)  to  Government  organizations  to  ensure  safety  of  data  and minimize cyber threats.

(d) and (e): The measures taken by Government to address issues relating to transmission/circulation of such objectionable videos are as follows :

- (i) Sections  66E,  67,  67A  and  67B  of  the  IT  Act  2000  provides  punishment  for uploading/transmissions of videos of sexual abuse including child pornography.
- (ii) Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched a portal www.cybercrime.gov.in for public  to  report  complaints  of  child  pornography  and  sexually  abusive  explicit content.
- (iii) In  addition,  Protection  of  Children  from  Sexual  Offences  Act  (POCSO)  E-box portal  by  National  Commission  for  Protection  of  Child  Rights  (NCPCR)  was opened for reporting of cyber crime targeting children. NCPCR has now enhanced the scope of POCSO E-box to also handle cyber bullying, cyber stalking, morphing of  images  and  child  pornography.    The  E-Box  is  also  available  as  Mobile  app  at Google/Apple Play Store.
- (iv) Government periodically blocks the websites containing extreme Child sexual abuse material based on INTERPOL's 'worst of list' received through Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is the national nodal agency for INTERPOL in India.  As on  date  a  total  of  4934  websites  have  been  ordered  for  blocking  through  Internet Service providers (ISPs).
- (v) Government  has  issued  an  order  to  concerned  ISPs  to  adopt  Internet  Watch Foundation  (IWF)  list  of  CSAM  websites/webpages  and  block  access  to  child pornography  webpages/  websites  at  gateway  level.  This  dynamic  list  is  updated daily.
- (vi) DoT has communicated to all ISPs requesting them to make suitable arrangement to spread awareness among their subscribers about the use of Parental Control filters in the end-user machines through messages of email, invoices, SMS, website, etc

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