Lok Sabha Question No. 2872 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-16
Subject: Survey on Cyber Crime
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE, BHAVANA GAWALI (PATIL)

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)

## LOK   SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2872

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 16.12.2015

## SURVEY ON CYBER CRIME

## 2872 SHRI  KRUPAL  BALAJI  TUMANE: SHRIMATI  BHAVANA  PUNDALIKRAO  GUWALI  PATIL:

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

- (a) Whether  children  are  being  subjected  to  threats  on  Internet  in  the  country,  if  so,  the details thereof;
- (b) whether the children are becoming depressed due to such problems;
- (c) if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  any  steps  are  being  taken  or  proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  in  this regard; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a), (b) and (c): The cyberspace is virtual, borderless and anonymous. The web infrastructure  does  not  distinguish  the  nature  of  content.    While  Internet  provides  immense opportunity  to  school  children,  Society  and  other  individuals  for  entertainment,  information sharing,  education  programmes,  communication,  online  gaming  etc.,  certain  elements  in  the society  make  use  of  unique  characteristics  of  cyberspace  to  commit  cyber  crimes  against  the society,  including  children,  by  posting  objectionable  /  obscene  contents.    These  cyber  crimes also  include  cyber  bullying  and  cyber  stalking.        Besides  this,  the  Children  are  exposed  to harmful content on the net including explicit sexual material and video voyeurism.  In view of the nature of cyber space and activities therein and  with the introduction of new technologies, devices including smart phones /Tablets and innovative applications on such devices, the usage of cyberspace has rapidly increased in the society,  there is a likelihood of increasing number of children ending up as victims of cyber crimes and abuse.

As  per  National  Commission  for  Protection  of  Child  Rights  (NCPCR)  and  National  Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 1, 3, 5 and 1 Cyber Child abuse cases have been registered in the country in the year 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 (till 30 th November) respectively.

(d) and (e):   In order to deal with the issues of cyber crimes, following measures are in place:

(i)  The Information Technology Act 2000 together with the Indian Penal Code (IPC) provides legal framework for dealing with online obscene material including child sexual abuse. Sections 67, 67A and 67B of the Information Technology Act provide stringent punishment and fine for publishing or transmission of obscene material in electronic form.  Similarly, the Protection of Children  from  Sexual  Offences  Act  (POCSO)  also  deals  with  cyber  related  crimes  against children.

(ii) Under  sub-Section (2) of Section 79 of Information Technology  Act 2000, the intermediaries including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a statutory obligation to observe due diligence and guidelines prescribed by the Government.  The details of the due diligence to be  observed  by  the  intermediaries  have  been  prescribed  under  the  Information  Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 enacted under Section 79 and notified on 13.04.2011.  As per sub-Rule 3 (2) of the Rules as above, the intermediaries are required to take necessary action to inform the users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information which is objectionable in any way (including sexually explicit material). Government  is  in  regular  dialog  with  intermediaries  including  social  networking  sites  for effective disablement of such objectionable content.

(iii)    To enable responsible user behaviour and to promote cyber security and safety awareness, the  Government has been implementing a programme on Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA). One of the objective of the Project is to spread awareness on Information Security amongst various user groups including schools children. Under ISEA Project Phase I (2005-2014), approx. 596 workshops have been conducted which covered around 60000 school children /  college students. During these workshops, approx. 50000 awareness kits containing awareness  material/hand  books  were  distributed.  50  posters  on  various  topics  related  to information security awareness were designed and around 2 lakh posters were posted at different user locations including Schools.

(iv) Under ISEA Project Phase II also, Mass Awareness is being targeted towards different user groups  including  School  children.  Till  date,  around  195  workshops  altogether  have  been conducted across the country and covered 6057 students including school children.

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