Supreme Court to government: Set up hotline to check online child porn
, TNN|
Updated: Oct 27, 2017, 10.38 AM IST
NEW DELHI: To curb circulation of child pornography and rape videos on the internet, the Supreme Court has asked the central government to create an online portal and hotline number where anonymous complaints could be filed against those responsible for uploading such offensive videos.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit accepted the recommendations of the court-appointed committee -comprising the Centre's representative and top technocrats from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook -and directed the government to implement them “at the earliest“.
The committee, headed by additional secretary from ministry of electronics and information technology, unanimously made 11 recommendations on measures to be taken to stop uploading and sharing of offending videos of rape and child pornography on the internet. It suggested that the Centre work with online search engines and civil society organisations to expand the list of key words and block them so that people could not search and access the objectionable videos. It also recommended that the key words be also expanded to other Indian languages.
“A reporting mechanism must be created at the central level, preferably with the CBI (in view of its role and special access) to also receive information of any child pornography (CP)rape and gang rape(RGR) content being circulated in social media or any other platform over the internet. There is a need to create a central reporting mechanism and any personorganisation should be able to report any CRRGR with ease with provision for anonymous reporting,“ the panel said.
“The central teamauthority to also immediately send communication to police stations for registration of FIR and initiation of prosecution. In view of CBI's willingness to take this responsibility, it is recommended that the matter be handled by CBI and not by local police,“ the report said. It said the Centre should authorise specific authority for receiving complaints of CPRGR online and initiating action within a specified time. Accepting the recommendations, the bench said, ““We expect the parties to abide by the recommendations on which there is consensus and implement them at the earliest“.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit accepted the recommendations of the court-appointed committee -comprising the Centre's representative and top technocrats from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook -and directed the government to implement them “at the earliest“.
The committee, headed by additional secretary from ministry of electronics and information technology, unanimously made 11 recommendations on measures to be taken to stop uploading and sharing of offending videos of rape and child pornography on the internet. It suggested that the Centre work with online search engines and civil society organisations to expand the list of key words and block them so that people could not search and access the objectionable videos. It also recommended that the key words be also expanded to other Indian languages.
“A reporting mechanism must be created at the central level, preferably with the CBI (in view of its role and special access) to also receive information of any child pornography (CP)rape and gang rape(RGR) content being circulated in social media or any other platform over the internet. There is a need to create a central reporting mechanism and any personorganisation should be able to report any CRRGR with ease with provision for anonymous reporting,“ the panel said.
“The central teamauthority to also immediately send communication to police stations for registration of FIR and initiation of prosecution. In view of CBI's willingness to take this responsibility, it is recommended that the matter be handled by CBI and not by local police,“ the report said. It said the Centre should authorise specific authority for receiving complaints of CPRGR online and initiating action within a specified time. Accepting the recommendations, the bench said, ““We expect the parties to abide by the recommendations on which there is consensus and implement them at the earliest“.
(This article was originally published in The Times of India)
