The Narendra Modi Government is taking drastic steps towards curbing the virus of Child Pornography and online abuse of kids on social media. The Central governemnt has enlisted the help of Interpol and Internet Watch Foundation for the same. A huge surge has been observed in the number of child pornographic sites and videos of the abuse are becoming explicit. It poses a grave concern regarding the protection offered to the children in the cpountry and the Central Government has thus decided to take action.
A total of 3,522 sites have been blocked in the past 4 months and Interpol has a ‘worst of list’ prepared by Internet Watch Foundation that they have shared with the CBI for blocking. An inter-ministerial committee is also being set up for the same. In the meantime online service providers are directed to monitor and remove websites, URLs etc containing material on the line of child abuse or axploitation. This directive comes from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to the Internet Service Provider’s Association of India. A Central Mechanism for the regulation of abusive content is not in place yet. Outside help is being sought because the online child abuse material is being hosted outside India and the URLs are dynamic and frequently changing.
Interpol has been vested with the responsibility for maintaining and dissemination to Central Bureaus world wide the ‘worst of list’ by the United Nations. The ‘worst of list’ mentions the websites with the most explicit and severest of child abuse content. The Supreme Court that directed Central Government for taking strong action because watching pornography and obscenities are a criminal offence as per Indian Law.
Experts opine that accessibility through online media and the availability of digital cameras and camcorders are responsible for the rise in this trend. However the case be, Central Government is taking drastic steps and protecting children is top priority. A total shutdown of pornography is being envisioned but curbing child pornography comes first.
Sources – TOI
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