Lok Sabha Question No. 5395 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-04-05
Subject: Impact of Social Media
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Janardan Singh Sigriwal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 5395

TO BE ANSWERED ON 5.4.2023

## IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

## 5395. SHRI JANARDAN SINGH SIGRIWAL:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has conducted any survey to evaluate the impact of social media on various age groups in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b)  the  measures taken  by the Government to prevent the reach of children and students to objectionable materials like obscene literature, child abuse, human trafficking and drug addiction;

(c)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  impose  censorship  criteria  on  various  social  media  for  such objectionable materials by bringing in any law and if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government has received any complaints/representations regarding adverse effects of using social media on children, adolescents and students; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a):   The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has informed that a study was conducted on 'Effects (Physical, Behavioral and Psycho-Social) of using Mobile Phones and other devices with internet accessibility by children'. As per this, 23.80% of children use smart phones while they are in bed, before going to sleep, which increases with age, and 37.15% of children always or frequently experience reduced levels of concentration due to smart phone use. The study is available on the link https://ncpcr.gov.in/uploads/165650458362bc410794e02\_EFFECT~1.PDF.

(b)  and  (c):        The  policies  of  the  Government  are  aimed  at  ensuring  an  Open,  Safe  and  Trusted  and Accountable Internet for its users. With the expansion of the Internet and more and more Indians coming online, the potential for children being exposed to information not meant for them has grown. Government is cognizant of the same and the need to have in place appropriate methods to protect and limit involvement of minors.

The  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  ('IT  Act')  penalises  publishing  or  transmission  of  material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form (section 67A and 67B) and publishing or transmitting of obscene material in electronic form (section 67), and makes them punishable with imprisonment for a period that may extend to three and five years respectively, and as per section 77B such cybercrimes are cognizable offences. As per the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, prevention and investigation of cognizable offences is to be done by the police, and as per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, 'Police' is  a  State  subject.  As  such,  States  are  primarily  responsible  for  the  prevention,  investigation  etc.  of  such cybercrimes  through  the  State  police  departments,  which  take  preventive  and  penal  action  as  per  law, including in respect of the said cybercrimes pertaining to publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act or obscene material in electronic form.

Further, to help achieve the aforesaid aim and to strengthen the mechanism to deal with such cybercrimes in a coordinated manner,the Central Government, in exercise of powers conferred by the IT Act, has made the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('IT Rules, 2021').  These  rules  cast  specific  obligation  on  intermediaries,  including  social  media  intermediaries,  to observe due diligence and provide that if they fail to observe such due diligence, they shall no longer be exempt from their liability under law for third-party information or data or communication link hosted by them. Such due diligence includes the following:

- (i) To make reasonable efforts to cause the users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share, among others, information which is harmful to child or obscene, or invasive of another's bodily privacy, or violates any law;
- (ii) Upon receipt of an order from a lawfully authorised government agency, to provide information or assistance  for  prevention,  detection,  investigation  or  prosecution  under  law,  or  for  cybersecurity incidents;
- (iii) To have in place  a  grievance  redressal  machinery,  and  resolve  complaints  of  violation  of  the  rules within 72 hours of being reported and, in case of a complaint by an individual or her/his authorised representative, remove within 24 hours any content which prima facie exposes the private area of such individual, shows such individual in full or partial nudity or shows or depicts such individual in any sexual act or conduct, or is in the nature of impersonation in an electronic form, including artificially morphed images of such individual;
- (iv) In case an intermediary is a significant social media intermediary ( i.e., an intermediary having more than 50 lakh registered users in India), to additionally observe due diligence in terms of appointing a Chief  Compliance  Officer,  a  nodal  contact  person  for  24x7  coordination  with  law  enforcement agencies and a Resident Grievance Officer.

In  addition,  under  the  Code  of  Ethics  prescribed  in  the  IT  Rules,  2021,  publishers  of  an  online  content curator are required to classify all content transmitted or published or exhibited by them, based on the nature and type of content, into various rating categories, including content suitable for children, content suitable for  persons  aged 7  years or 13  years or 16  years and above or persons under the said ages with parental guidance, and to display such classification. They are further required to restrict access to certain curated content by a child through implementation of appropriate access control measures.

To  further  strengthen  the  mechanism  to  deal  with  such  cybercrimes  in  a  coordinated  manner,  the Government has also taken several other measures, including the following:

- (i) The Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to deal with all types of cybercrime, including cybercrime against children, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
- (ii) The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to States and Union territories under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children Scheme for capacity building, including for the setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories and training of personnel of law enforcement agencies, public prosecutors and judicial officers. Cyberforensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 30 States and Union territories.
- (iii) Government has from time-to-time blocked websites containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), based  on  lists  from  Interpol  received  through  the  Central  Bureau  of  Investigation,  India's  national nodal agency for Interpol.
- (iv) Government has issued an order to Internet Service Providers, directing them to implement Internet Watch Foundation, UK or Project Arachnid, Canada list of CSAM websites/webpages on a dynamic basis and block access to such web pages or websites.
- (v) The  Department  of  Telecommunications  has  requested  Internet  Service  Providers  (ISPs)  to  spread awareness among their subscribers about the use of parental control filters, and has also directed ISPs with International Long Distance licence to block certain websites found to be containing CSAM.
- (vi) The Central Board of Secondary Education has issued guidelines on 18.8.2017 to schools on the safe and secure use of Internet. These guidelines direct schools to install effective firewalls, filtering and monitoring software mechanisms in all computers and to deploy effective security policies.
- (vii) To spread awareness on cybercrime, the Ministry of Home Affairs has taken several steps that include dissemination of messages on cybercrime through the Twitter handle @CyberDost, radio campaigns and publishing of a Handbook for Adolescents/Students.
- (viii) The  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  is  implementing  the  Information  Security Education  and  Awareness  (ISEA)  Phase-II  project  to  build  capacities  in  the  area  of  information security, train government personnel and create mass information security awareness for users. Under this, a large number of awareness workshops have been conducted across the country, school teachers trained as master trainers to reach out to crores of users in the indirect mode through Cyber Safety and

Cyber Security Awareness Weeks organised in select cities in collaboration with State Cyber Cell / Police departments, mass awareness programmes broadcasted through Doordarshan / All India Radio, bimonthly newsletters published in print and digital mode, and multilingual awareness content in the form of handbooks, multimedia short videos, posters etc., which have been disseminated through print, electronic  and  social  media  and  made  available  for  download  on  the  ISEA  awareness  portal (www.infosecawareness.in).

- (ix) A memorandum of understanding has been signed between India's National Crime Records Bureau and  the  National  Center  for  Missing  and  Exploited  Children  of  the  United  States  of  America,  for sharing of tipline reports on online child explicit material and child sexual exploitation contents from the said Center. The tip lines, as received from the Center, are shared online with States and Union territories through the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal for further action.
- (x) In  2018,  Government  directed  Internet  Service  Providers  to  block 827  websites  that  hosted pornographic content, following an order by the Uttarakhand High Court.

(d)  and  (e):      By  providing  that  social  media  intermediaries  shall  publish  the  details  of  their  Grievance Officer and their grievance redressal mechanism by which a user or a victim may make complaint against violation  of  the  provisions  regarding  due  diligence  under  the  rules  or  any  other  matters  pertaining  to  the computer  resources  made  available  by  them,  the  IT  Rules,  2021  have  empowered  users  and  victims  to complain to the Grievance Officer for time bound resolution of their grievance. Further, in case a person is aggrieved by a decision of the Grievance Officer, she or he may prefer an appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee.

Apart from enabling users and victims to complain to the intermediary's Grievance Officer, the Government has  also facilitated citizens to  report  complaints  pertaining  to all  types  of  cybercrimes,  including cybercrimes against children, through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) and toll-free number (1930), established by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

*******