Lok Sabha Question No. 200 (STARRED), answered on 2023-08-02
Subject: Safer Online Spaces for Children
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Hasnain Masoodi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *200

TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2023

## SAFER ONLINE SPACES FOR CHILDREN

## *200.   SHRI HASNAIN MASOODI:

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

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  taken  into  cognizance  the  rising  cases  of  cyber-crimes against children across the country;
- (b) if so, the steps taken by the Government to regulate cyberspace for child protection; and
- (c) the  details  of  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  make  social  media  and  private companies accountable for safer online spaces for children?

## ANSWER

MINISTER FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (c):     A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN THE REPLY TO LOK SABHA  STARRED QUESTION NO. *200 FOR 02.08.2023 REGARDING SAFER ONLINE SPACES FOR CHILDREN

………

(a) to (c): The policies of the Government are aimed at ensuring an Open, Safe and Trusted and Accountable Internet for its all users. With the expansion of the Internet and more and more Indians coming online, the instances of cybercrimes  including against children, have grown.

As per data published by the National Crime Records Bureau, 306, 1102 and 1376 cases of cybercrime against children were registered during the years2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  ('IT  Act')  and  rules  made  thereunder  contain provisions aimed at making cyberspace safe and accountable for children.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 help achieve the aim of making Internet Open, Safe and Trusted and Accountable 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.  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,  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.

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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