The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Saturday issued notice to Google, Twitter, and WhatsApp over child pornography. The Commission, attributing to the research study of ICPF on Child Sexual Abuse Material in India, highlighted that the online child porn traffic from India has increased by 95 per cent between March 24 and 26, as compared to average traffic before the lockdown. In its notice, the Commission has sought a reply by April 30.
Pulling up all the three platforms it issued individual notices to them. In its notice to Google, it said, "The Commission while conducting the independent inquiry on availability of online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) noticed that the Pornographic Material is accessible through the Apps available on Google Play Store. By mere downloading these Apps from the platform, the user can access such material. This is enabling the reach/accessibility of the children to such material and hence, is a serious matter. Further, there is also a possibility that the CSAM is also available on these Apps making it much grave issue."
To WhatsApp, the Commission said that there are certain links available to join “encrypted WhatsApp groups” and the “CSAM and pornographic material is rampantly present” in these groups. The links to these “encrypted WhatsApp groups” were found to be propagated and available on the internet. Any user by merely following these links can join these “encrypted WhatsApp groups” and can obtain the CSAM and pornographic material through these group chats on their phones.
"This enables the reach of the children to pornographic material. Further, there is also the possibility that the perpetrators are also present and active on these “encrypted WhatsApp groups” which makes children even more vulnerable. Therefore, it is a very serious matter," it added.
In its notice to Twitter, it said, "The Commission noticed that there are encrypted WhatsApp groups and the CSAM is rampantly present in these groups. The links to these groups were found to be propagated by various handles on Twitter. The Commission is of the view that propagating links of these WhatsApp groups on Twitter handles is a serious matter. Further, it is seen that as per your standard terms and conditions, a person of 13 years and above is eligible to open an account on Twitter, if you are allowing children at the age of 13 to open an account, the Commission is of the view that you can’t allow the other users to publish, propagate pornographic material, links, etc. on Twitter. Another concern of the Commission is that the accessibility of the pornographic material to the children through these links on Twitter."
The Commission has reported and forwarded the handles/links and details to the Ministry of Homes Affairs (MHA) on Cybercrime Portal for taking lawful action in the matter.
In order to carry out an independent inquiry, the Commission sought certain information--a) Number of complaints in regard to CSAM received on your platform; b) Number of complaints in regard to pornographic content posted by users on your platform; c) Provide details of the policy being followed by you in dealing with both the issues in India; d) Number of complaints in regard to pornographic content received on your platform; e) Provide details of the policy to ensure that such material is not available/accessible to the children on your platform.
