A minor's (who is less than 18 years old) visual depiction (such as videos, images, etc.) about sexually explicit conduct is called child pornography. It is a kind of child physical and sexual perversion. Any kind of videos or images about child sexual and physical exploitation can be regarded as child pornography.
o Child Pornography Today:
Child pornography is a colossal problem in our society today. This problem is expanding day by day with the growth of high accessibility to the World Wide Web. Child pornography is illegal in many countries. The production, distribution, importation, reception, or possession of any images or videos of child pornography are prohibited by Indian law. Child Pornography is a serious crime, and offenders face severe legal punishments.
Numerous children are facing this dilemma every year. The victimized children suffer from the mental crisis as they comprehend their sexually exploited images or videos are on the internet globally. This kind of pornography creates an unchanging record of the sexually exploited children on the internet. This situation usually creates continuing mental destruction of the children including their self-development and those children often suffer lifelong social negligence.
Availability of the Internet and accessibility to the World Wide Web lies parallelly behind the enlargement of child pornography. Child pornographers now have a number of social forums to share videos and pictures of sexually abused children. As a result, the child pornography images are readily available on the internet including social networking sites, photo-sharing sites and even on some mobile apps.
Furthermore, the systems become advanced which are used by the child pornographers to escape from law enforcement detection. As a result, it becomes a business for some offenders. Even some online organizations ensure their users to maintain their privacy. Presently, it becomes a difficult job for the police and cyber cell department to find the offenders.
o Cyber Child Pornography problem in India:
The child pornography problem is rapidly growing in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) report, more than 25000 child's sexual abuse cases were uploaded across the social media forum over the last 5 months (From the month of December 2019 to April 2020). Most of such materials have been uploaded from Delhi, followed by Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development reported that approximately 377 websites are hosting child pornography and 50% of children are exploited. The speedy growth of the internet and technology is the main reason behind the availability of child pornography in India.
o Indian Government’s action for Child Pornography:
After preparing a draft in 2006, the government of India passed the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in 2012. This legislation ensures the protection of children from sexual assaults, sexual harassment, pornography, and also allows a stricter penalty for the offenders. The establishment of the Special Courts for the trial of such offences is also implemented under this act. The Act derives its power from Article 15(3) of the Constitution of India, which allows the States to make special provisions for protecting the human rights of children. Article 39(f) of the Constitution of India provides for the State to direct its policy to secure the tender age of children so that they are not abused and their childhood and youth are protected against exploitation.
Moreover, some leading Indian internet service providers including JIO, Airtel, BSNL have blocked hundreds of porn sites and file sharing websites from the past few years. In a reply to an RTI query, the government has clarified that DoT (Department of Telecom) has done this because of three specific court orders. Among the three court orders, two were passed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of the Esplanade Court in Mumbai. Under this, after a complaint from the cyber police department in a single day, 500 websites were reportedly blocked. The national blocking of pornographic sites containing child pornography occurred when the Uttarakhand High Court passed the third order. 857 websites were blocked after the Uttarakhand High court's order. Although, the regulations passed by the Department of Technology to Internet Service providers noted that the websites that contain child pornography should be banned.
o CONCLUSION:
Sexually abused children not only just suffer from sexual exploitation or their experiences but also suffer by comprehending that their images and videos are available on the internet and visible to all, globally. Permanent records of child sexual abusive pictures can ruin his/her life forever. The term “Child pornography” is globally used by lawmakers, investigators, and the public to express the violation of sexual exploitation of a child. However, the term fails to express the True Horror faced by millions of children every year. The POSCO Act is there for protecting the children from such abuse; however, lack of social awareness restricts this act to attain its objectives.
PLEASE DO NOT SEARCH FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON GOOGLE (OR ANYWHERE)...AS YOUR SEARCH MAY ENCOURAGE A CRIMINAL TO ACT.
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