Lok Sabha Question No. 2275 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-02
Subject: Child Pornography
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: T.R.V.S. Ramesh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2275

TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2023

## CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

## 2275.   SHRI T.R.V.S. RAMESH:

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

- (a) whether there has been rise in the prevalence of child pornography material and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  whether  the  Government  has  data  on  grievances  raised  and  redressed  by  social  media intermediaries  under  the  Information  Technology  (Intermediary  Guidelines  and  Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has taken any steps to combat the spread of information on the dark web and curb its use and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government has identified any platforms that are used for the dissemination of child pornography and introduced any restrictions on the same; and (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a):  The policies of the Government are aimed at ensuring an Open, 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 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 provide under section 79 of IT Act 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  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.  The  Central  Government  is  taking  zero tolerance policy towards any such cybercrimes.

As per the data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, cases registered under the sub-category 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.

(b) to (e): 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 thirdparty 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;
- (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 time bound 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-cum-training 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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