Lok Sabha Question No. 3357 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-09
Subject: Circulation of CSAM
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Andimuthu Raja

## 3357. SHRI A. RAJA:

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

(a) whether the Government has taken cognizance of increase in the circulation of Child Sexual Abuse

Materials (CSAM) and pornographic materials in the cyber space and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the total number of registered cases filed in this regard during the last three years;

(c) the total number of cases in which stringent action was taken including blocking of the site; and

(d) the steps taken or proposed to be taken to prevent the spread of CSAM and pornographic materials on the internet?

## ANSWER

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

(a):  The  policies  of  the  Government  are  aimed  at  ensuring  a  Safe  and  Trusted  and  Accountable Internet for all its users.

Publication  or  transmission  of  electronic  material  depicting  children  in  sexually  explicit  act,  is cybercrime. The Central Government is taking zero tolerance policy towards any such cybercrimes.

The  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  ('IT  Act')  and  the  Information  Technology  (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('IT Rules, 2021'), provides for penalty and punishment for such act and also casts an obligations on the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries,  to  observe  due  diligence  as  per  rule  3(1)(b)  and  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  that  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 rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material.

(b):   As per the data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, cases registered under the subcategory  Cyber  Pornography/Hosting  or  Publishing  Obscene  Sexual  Materials  depicting  children, under the category Cyber Crimes against Children, are 102, 735 and 969 for the year 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.

(c)  to  (d):  The  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  ('IT  Act')  and  the  Information  Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('IT Rules, 2021'), together, have  made  a  framework  which  cast  obligations  on  the  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,  information  which  is  harmful  to  child,  or  obscene,  or invasive of another's bodily privacy, or violates any law;
- (ii) On a voluntary basis on violation of the above, and on actual knowledge upon receipt of a grievance  or  court  order  or  notice  from  the  appropriate  government  or  its  agency,  to  not host, store or publish unlawful information prohibited under law for the time being in force in relation to the interest of decency or morality or defamation;

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3357

TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.08.2023

## CIRCULATION OF CSAM

- (iii) Upon  receipt  of  an  order  from  a  lawfully  authorised  government  agency,  to  provide information or assistance for prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution under law in a timebound manner within 72 hours;
- (iv) 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; further, the rules have been amended  on  28.10.2022  to  provide  for  the  establishment  of  one  or  more  Grievance Appellate  Committee(s)  to  allow  users  to  appeal  against  decisions  taken  by  Grievance Officers on such complaints;
- (v) 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,  and  to endeavour  to  deploy  technology-based  measures,  including  automated  tools  or  other mechanisms, to proactively identify information that depicts any act or simulation in any form depicting child sexual abuse or conduct.
- (vi) 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 rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material.

Keeping  in  view  complaints  regarding  action  or  inaction,  on  the  part  of  the  social  media intermediaries  and  other  intermediaries  on  user  grievances  regarding  objectionable  content  or suspension  of  their  accounts,  the  Central  Government  has  also  established  three  Grievance Appellate  Committees  (GACs),  as  provided  for  in  the  said  IT  Rules,  2021  to  enable  users  to appeal against the decisions taken by Grievance Officer of intermediaries on user complaints.

It  is  further informed that section 67B of the IT Act penalises the publishing or transmitting of electronic  material  depicting  children  in  sexually  explicit  act,  the  creation  of  text  or  images, collection, seeking, browsing, downloading, advertising, promotion, exchange or distribution of electronic material depicting them in obscene or indecent or sexually explicit manner, cultivating or enticing or inducing them to online relationship with other children for sexually explicit act or in  an  offending  manner,  facilitating  their  online  abuse,  and  electronically  recording  abuse pertaining to sexually explicit act with children. Such an offence is punishable with imprisonment of up to five years on first conviction and seven years on subsequent conviction along with fine of up to ten lakh rupees, and is a cognizable offence. Since, as per the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, prevention and investigation of cognizable offences is to be done by the police and '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 children.

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 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  children.  The Ministry 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) 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-cumtraining laboratories and training of personnel of law enforcement agencies, public

prosecutors and judicial officers. So far, cyber forensic-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 license 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.

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