NCPCR Notices Social Media on Child Abuse Material

New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) Apex child rights statutory body NCPCR has issued a notice to social media platforms on alleged dissemination of advertisements linked to child sexual abuse material, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Electronics and IT had issued a notice to Meta on Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram.

Without naming any social media platform, the minister of state for electronics and IT Jitin Prasada in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said the Government of India has taken serious note of the reports alleging dissemination of advertisements linked to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on social media platforms and sought a detailed report from the intermediary concerned.

"National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has also issued notice to social media platforms concerned," the minister said.


Prasada said the IT Act provides punishment for various cyber offences such as identity theft (Section 66C), impersonation (Section 66D), privacy violations (Section 66E), publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit content (sections 67, 67A, 67B). It also empowers police to investigate offences (Section 78 and 80).

He said recent amendments to IT rules require social media platforms and other intermediaries to remove unlawful content within three hours of the receipt of an order of a court of competent jurisdiction or reasoned intimation by the appropriate government or its agency.

Prasada said the IT Rules mandate the Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs) to take reasonable efforts to deploy appropriate technical measures, including automated tools or other suitable mechanisms, to proactively identify information that depicts any act or simulation in any form depicting rape, child sexual abuse or conduct, whether explicit or implicit, or any information that is exactly identical in content to information that has previously been removed.

"In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, they lose their exemption from third party information provided under Section 79 of the IT Act. They are liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any extant law," he said.