A 14-member committee of the Rajya Sabha has recommended that Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak about child pornography and the measures required to curb it through his popular Mann ki Baat and also to take the lead in building a global political consensus similar to International Solar Alliance to combat the spread of child pornography through social media. The committee also recommended that mandatory apps be installed on all electronic devices to regulate children's access to pornography content.
The ad hoc committee, instituted by Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu in last December, submitted its 40-point recommendations on Saturday. The committee was formed to explore two issues—access of children to pornographic material on social media and the circulation of pornographic content in which children are abused.
Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh, who headed the committee, said setting up a committee of this nature to examine and report on an issue which is a big social concern was first of its kind. He added that it could be a model for similar committees which could be set up to deliberate on pressing social issues.
Legislatively, the report recommended that amendments be made to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012 and the IT Act of 2000, with corresponding changes in the Indian Penal Code. It said that the POCSO Act should have a clause that makes seeking sexual favours from a person under the age of 18 through written material, visual representation or audio recordings an offence. It also recommended a code of conduct for online platforms for maintaining child safety and ensuring age appropriate content. The report suggested that school managements be made responsible for the safety of children within schools and school buses and that a national cyber crime reporting portal be set up to report complaints.
It further recommended that law enforcement agencies should be given permission to brake end-to-end encryption to trace distributors of child pornography. Online payment portals and credit cards should be prohibited from processing payments for child pornographic material, and social media platforms be mandated with minimum essential technologies to detect child sexual abuse material, the panel noted.
The committee has been critical of online streaming platforms like Netflix as well as social media sites, and said these should have separate adult sections, and a watertight mechanism for verifying age and restricting access. It also suggested that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCOCR) should be given a technological upgrade to deal with the issue.
The panel further suggested that various stakeholder ministries—women and child development, information and broadcasting—launch campaigns for creating increased awareness among parents to recognise early signs of child sexual abuse, and the risks presented by social media platforms.
