As per the information received from Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), in line with the recommendations of the report of the adhoc Committee of the Rajya Sabha to Study the Alarming Issue of Pornography on Social Media and its effect on children and society as a whole, the Government has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 which inter alia requires –

 

(i)      the intermediaries to adopt a robust grievance redressal mechanism including time-bound disposal of grievances;

(ii)     the Intermediaries to convey their terms and conditions which must include communication to users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information that is inter alia harmful, obscene, harm minors in any way or is otherwise unlawful;

(iii)    significant social media intermediaries providing primarily messaging services to enable identification of the first originator of the information; and

(iv)    significant Social media Intermediary (SSMI) to endeavour to deploy technology based measures to proactively identify child sexual abuse material.

 

To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes including crimes against children in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, MeitY through a program, namely, Information Security Education & Awareness (ISEA), has been creating awareness among users highlighting the importance of following the ethics while using Internet and advising them not to share rumors/fake news. A dedicated website for information security awareness (https://www.infosecawareness.in) provides all the relevant awareness material.

Further, The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 was amended in 2019 to make punishment more stringent. In the amendment the definition of child pornography has been included under Section 2(da). Section 14 of the Act was amended for more strict punishment for using child for pornographic purposes. Further Section 15 was also amended and more stringent punishment was introduced for storing or possessing of pornographic material involving child for transmitting or propagating or displaying or distributing in any manner at any time except for the purpose of reporting or for use as evidence in the Court.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Rules, 2020 further stipulates that suitable material and information may be disseminated by the respective Governments in all public places such as panchayat bhavans, community centers, schools and colleges, bus terminals, railway stations, places of congregation, airports, taxi stands, cinema halls and such other prominent places and also be disseminated in suitable form in virtual spaces such as internet and social media.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is also implementing a scheme, namely Cyber Crime Prevention against women and Children (CCPWC) under Nirbhaya Fund with a total outlay of Rs. 223.19 crore. Under CCPWC, MHA has provided grant to States / UTs to set up cyber forensic cum training laboratories, hiring of Junior Cyber Consultant and training capacity building to provide hands-on training to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers. 28 States / UTs have set up Cyber Forensic Training Laboratory. More than 19000 Police personnel, Prosecutors, and Judicial officers have been trained.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

 

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