Lok Sabha Question No. 3097 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Child Sexual Abuse Material Laws
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Dr. Nishikant Dubey, Smt. Smita Uday Wagh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 3097

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 19.03.2025

## CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MATERIAL LAWS

## 3097.   SMT. SMITA UDAY WAGH: DR. NISHIKANT DUBEY:

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

(a) the specific measures proposed under the Sahyog platform and the manner in which it is likely  to  improve  direct  reporting  of  Child  Sexual  Abuse  Material  (CSAM)  cases  to  law enforcement agencies;

(b)  whether  the  Government  has  developed  monitoring  mechanisms  to  ensure  that  social media platforms do not delay, suppress  or  under-report  CSAM cases  and  if  so, the  details thereof;

(c)  whether  the  Intermediary  Guidelines  (IT  Rules),  2021  will  be  amended  to  introduce stricter obligations for tech platforms on CSAM reporting and takedown and if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the said platform has been deployed for testing or pilot implementation and if so, the details along with the current status thereof; and

(e)  whether  there  any  State-specific  initiatives  under  the  Sahyog  platform  and  if  so,  the manner in which Maharashtra particularly Jalgaon and the Khandesh regions are likely to be benefitted from its implementation?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) to (e): The policies of the Central Government are aimed at ensuring an open, safe, trusted and accountable Internet for its users.

The  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  ('IT  Act')  provides  punishment  for  publishing  or transmitting  obscene  material  and  material  containing  sexually  explicit  act  in  electronic form.The IT Act also provides stringent punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting  children  in  sexually  explicit  act  in  electronic  form.Such  anoffence  is  punishable with  imprisonment  of  up  to  five  years  on  first  conviction  and  sevenyears  on  subsequent conviction along with fine, and is a cognizableoffence. Further, as per the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), prevention and investigation of cognizable offences is to be done by  the  police  and  since  'Police'  is  a  State  subject  under  the  Seventh  Schedule  to  the Constitution,  States  are  primarily  responsible  for  the  prevention,  investigation  etc.  of  such cybercrime against children. Accordingly, State police departments take preventive and penal action as per law in respect of cybercrime against women and children.

Additionally, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('IT Rules') cast specific obligations on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to observe due diligence while discharging its duties.Such obligations include the making of reasonable efforts by the intermediary to cause its users not to host, display,  upload,  publish,  transmit  or  store  any  information  that  knowingly  or  intentionally violates any law. Intermediaries are also obligated to remove,within 24 hoursfrom the receipt of a complaint made by an individual or any person on his behalf,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.  Also,  in  case  a significant  social  media  intermediary  is  providing  services  primarily  in  the  nature  of messaging  shall  enable  the  identification  of  the  first  originator  of  the  information  on  its computer  resource  for  the  purposes  of  prevention,  detection,  investigation,  prosecution  or punishment  of  an  offence  related  to  child  sexual  abuse  material.Further,intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, are obligated to remove any information violative of any  law  in  India  as  and  when  brought  to  their  knowledge  either  through  a  court  order  or through a notice by an appropriate government or its authorized agency.

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 (MHA) operates a National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) to enable citizens to report complaints pertaining to all  types  of  cybercrimes,  with  special  focus  on  cybercrimes  against  women  and children. MHA has also 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) To  streamline  the  process  of  issuing  takedown  notices  for  removal  of  unlawful information,  I4C  in  collaboration  with  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  ,  Ministry  of Electronics  and  Information  Technology  and  Department  of  Telecommunications has  developed  a  dedicated  portal  called  Sahyog  .  The  Sahyog  Portal  has  been launched  to  automate  the  process  of  sending  notices  to  intermediaries  by  the Appropriate  Government  or  its  agency  under  section  79(3)(b)  of  the  IT  Act  to facilitate the removal or disabling of access to any information, data or communication  link  being  used  to  commit  an  unlawful  act.  The  portal  has  been developed  to  bring  together  all  Authorized  Agencies  of  the  country  and  all  the intermediaries on one platform for ensuring immediate action against the unlawful online information to achieve a clean cyber space for the Citizens of India.
- (iii) An  MoU  has  been  signed  between  the  National  Crimes  Record  Bureau  (NCRB), MHA and  National  Center  for  Missing  and  Exploited  Children  (NCMEC),  USA regarding sharing of Tipline reports on online child explicit material and child sexual exploitation content. The Tip lines, as received from NCMEC, are being shared with LEAs of States/UTs  online  through  the  National  Cybercrime  Reporting  Portal  for taking further action.

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