Lok Sabha Question No. 2732 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-10
Subject: Child Abuse on Internet
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Aparajita Sarangi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2732

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 10.03.2021

## CHILD ABUSE ON INTERNET

## 2732.   SHRIMATI APARAJITA SARANGI:

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

- (a)   the total number of cases concerning child abuse on the internet reported during each of the last three years, State/UT-wise;
- (b)   the number of reported cases of children being used for pornographic contents during the same period, State/UT-wise particularly in Bhubaneshwar;
- (c)    the percentage increase in the incidents of cyber crimes and online child abuse in the State of Odisha over the last one year;
- (d)   whether the Government has put in place any measures to reduce the instances of children being used in pornographic contents and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (e)   whether the Government has taken any measures to prevent cyber bullying and victimisation of children in India by perpetrators abroad and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a), (b) and (c): As per the data reported and maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs (NCRB, MHA), a total of 88, 232 and 305 cases of cyber crime against children were registered in the year 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Further, as per the data provided by NCRB, a total of 824, 843 and 1485 cyber crime cases and 0, 7 and 5 cyber crime cases against children were registered in the year 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively in Odisha.

State/U-wise Cases Registered under -  (i) Cyber crimes against Children, (ii) Crime Head-wise Cases Registered under Cyber Crimes against Children and (iii) total cyber crimes for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 are at Annexure-I, Annexure-II and Annexure-III respectively. District-wise data on cyber crime against children is not maintained by NCRB separately.

(d) and (e): The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 has adequate provisions to deal with prevalent cyber  crimes  including  the  ones  related  to  children.    Section  67B  of  the  Act  provides  stringent punishment for publishing, browsing or transmitting child pornography in electronic form. Further, sections  354A  and  354D  of  Indian  Penal  Code  provide  punishment  for  cyber  bullying  and  cyber stalking. Also Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 provides for stringent punishment  for  using  child  for  pornographic  purposes  and  for  storage  of  pornographic  material involving child.

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 notified under the IT Act require that the intermediaries shall observe due diligence while discharging their duties and shall publish the rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement for access or usage of the intermediary's computer resource by any person;  inform their users not to host, display, upload,  modify,  publish,  transmit,  update  or  share  any  information  that    is inter  alia ,  obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, harms minor in any way; violates any law for the time being in force; etc.

Further, Government has taken a number of steps to protect children from online abuse. These, inter alia include:

- (i) MeitY through a program, namely, Information Security Education & Awareness (ISEA), has been creating awareness among users highlighting the importance of following the ethics while using  Internet  and  advising  them  not  to  share  rumors/fake  news.  A  dedicated  website  for information security awareness (https://www.infosecawareness.in) provides relevant awareness material.
- (ii) Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued guidelines on 18.08.2017 to schools on the safe and secure use of Internet. This circular directs schools to install effective firewalls, filtering and monitoring software mechanisms in all the computers and deploy effective security policies.
- (iii) POCSO E-box portal by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was opened for reporting of cyber crime targeting children including 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) Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched an online national cyber crime reporting portal: 'www.cybercrime.gov.in' to enable complainants to report complaints pertaining to all types of cyber crimes with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children.
- (v) Government periodically blocks the websites containing extreme child sexual abuse material (CSAM)  based  on  INTERPOL's  'worst  of  list'  received  through  Central  Bureau  of Investigation (CBI), the national nodal agency for Interpol in India.
- (vi) Government has issued direction to concerned Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to work out a suitable  arrangement  for  receiving  Internet  Watch  Foundation  (IWF),  UK  list  of  CSAM websites/webpages on a dynamic basis and block access to child pornography webpages/websites.

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Annexure-I State/UT-wise Cases Registered under Cyber crimes against Children during 2017-2019

| SL   | State/UT          |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |
|------|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|
| 1    | Andhra Pradesh    |      1 |     12 |      9 |
| 2    | Arunachal Pradesh |      0 |      0 |      1 |
| 3    | Assam             |      1 |      9 |      7 |
| 4    | Bihar             |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 5    | Chhattisgarh      |      4 |      7 |      5 |
| 6    | Goa               |      2 |      2 |      1 |
| 7    | Gujarat           |      4 |     12 |      7 |
| 8    | Haryana           |      0 |      1 |      5 |
| 9    | Himachal Pradesh  |      1 |      2 |      9 |
| 10   | Jammu &Kashmir    |      1 |      0 |      0 |
| 11   | Jharkhand         |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 12   | Karnataka         |      0 |     25 |     10 |
| 13   | Kerala            |      0 |     25 |     30 |
| 14   | Madhya Pradesh    |      5 |     15 |     20 |
| 15   | Maharashtra       |     27 |     57 |     70 |
| 16   | Manipur           |      2 |      0 |      1 |
| 17   | Meghalaya         |      0 |      1 |      0 |
| 18   | Mizoram           |      0 |      0 |      1 |
| 19   | Nagaland          |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 20   | Odisha            |      0 |      7 |      5 |
| 21   | Punjab            |      4 |      5 |      1 |
| 22   | Rajasthan         |      6 |      2 |      9 |
| 23   | Sikkim            |      0 |      1 |      0 |
| 24   | Tamil Nadu        |      3 |      5 |      5 |
| 25   | Telangana         |      0 |      2 |      3 |
| 26   | Tripura           |      0 |      1 |      0 |
| 27   | Uttar Pradesh     |      3 |     27 |     98 |
| 28   | Uttarakhand       |      0 |      2 |      0 |
| 29   | West Bengal       |     19 |      5 |      5 |
|      | TOTAL STATE(S)    |     83 |    225 |    302 |
| 30   | A&N Islands       |      0 |      1 |      0 |
| 31   | Chandigarh        |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 32   | D&N Haveli        |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 33   | Daman &Diu        |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 34   | Delhi             |      5 |      6 |      3 |
| 35   | Lakshadweep       |      0 |      0 |      0 |
| 36   | Puducherry        |      0 |      0 |      0 |
|      | TOTAL UT(S)       |      5 |      7 |      3 |
|      | TOTAL (ALL INDIA) |     88 |    232 |    305 |

Source: Crime in India

Note : Due to non-receipt of data from West Bengal in time for 2019, Data furnished for 2018 has been used

## Annexure-II

Crime Head-wise Cases Registered under Cyber Crimes against Children during 2017-2019

|   Sl | Crime Head                                                                                                                             |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |
|------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|
|    1 | Cyber Blackmailing/Threatening/ Harassment (Sec. 506, 503, 384 IPC r/w IT Act)                                                         |      1 |      4 |      3 |
|    2 | Fake Profile (IPC/SLL r/w IT Act)                                                                                                      |      3 |      3 |      1 |
|    3 | Cyber Pornography/ Hosting or Publishing Obscene Sexual Materials depicting children (Sec. 67B of IT Act r/w other IPC/SLL r/w IT Act) |      7 |     44 |    102 |
|    4 | Cyber Stalking/Bullying (Sec. 354D IPC r/w IT Act)                                                                                     |      7 |     40 |     45 |
|    5 | Internet Crimes through Online Games etc (Sec. 305 IPC r/w IT Act)                                                                     |      0 |      0 |      1 |
|    6 | Other Crimes against Children (IPC/SLL r/w IT Act)                                                                                     |     70 |    141 |    153 |
|    7 | Total Cyber crimes against Children                                                                                                    |     88 |    232 |    305 |

## Annexure-III

State/UT wise Cases Registered under Cyber Crimes during 2017-2019

|   Sl | State/UT          |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |
|------|-------------------|--------|--------|--------|
|    1 | Andhra Pradesh    |    931 |   1207 |   1886 |
|    2 | Arunachal Pradesh |      1 |      7 |      8 |
|    3 | Assam             |   1120 |   2022 |   2231 |
|    4 | Bihar             |    433 |    374 |   1050 |
|    5 | Chhattisgarh      |    171 |    139 |    175 |
|    6 | Goa               |     13 |     29 |     15 |
|    7 | Gujarat           |    458 |    702 |    784 |
|    8 | Haryana           |    504 |    418 |    564 |
|    9 | Himachal Pradesh  |     56 |     69 |     76 |
|   10 | Jammu &Kashmir    |     63 |     73 |     73 |
|   11 | Jharkhand         |    720 |    930 |   1095 |
|   12 | Karnataka         |   3174 |   5839 |  12020 |
|   13 | Kerala            |    320 |    340 |    307 |
|   14 | Madhya Pradesh    |    490 |    740 |    602 |
|   15 | Maharashtra       |   3604 |   3511 |   4967 |
|   16 | Manipur           |     74 |     29 |      4 |
|   17 | Meghalaya         |     39 |     74 |     89 |
|   18 | Mizoram           |     10 |      6 |      8 |
|   19 | Nagaland          |      0 |      2 |      2 |
|   20 | Odisha            |    824 |    843 |   1485 |
|   21 | Punjab            |    176 |    239 |    243 |
|   22 | Rajasthan         |   1304 |   1104 |   1762 |
|   23 | Sikkim            |      1 |      1 |      2 |
|   24 | Tamil Nadu        |    228 |    295 |    385 |
|   25 | Telangana         |   1209 |   1205 |   2691 |
|   26 | Tripura           |      7 |     20 |     20 |
|   27 | Uttar Pradesh     |   4971 |   6280 |  11416 |
|   28 | Uttarakhand       |    124 |    171 |    100 |

| 29   | West Bengal       |   568 |   335 |   335 |
|------|-------------------|-------|-------|-------|
|      | TOTAL STATE(S)    | 21593 | 27004 | 44395 |
| 30   | A&N Islands       |     3 |     7 |     2 |
| 31   | Chandigarh        |    32 |    30 |    23 |
| 32   | D&N Haveli        |     1 |     0 |     0 |
| 33   | Daman &Diu        |     0 |     0 |     3 |
| 34   | Delhi             |   162 |   189 |   115 |
| 35   | Lakshadweep       |     0 |     4 |     4 |
| 36   | Puducherry        |     5 |    14 |     4 |
|      | TOTAL UT(S)       |   203 |   244 |   151 |
|      | TOTAL (ALL INDIA) | 21796 | 27248 | 44546 |

Source: Crime in India

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