Centre to Crackdown on Child Porn Circulation Through Online Portal

The Central government has come up with an online portal to receive complaints in regard to child pornography circulation. Additionally, it has developed a set standard of procedure that will help nap the violators. This comes as a response to Supreme Court's repeated insistence on controlling child pornography and online content depicting sexual assaults. Centre has also started a helpline number to take up complaints.

Ministry of Home Affairs launched a centralised online portal www.cyberpolice.gov.in as well as a helpline number ‘155260’. These will be used to receive complaints pertaining to child pornography and rape/gangrape (CP/RGR) content.

According to the Indian law, child pornography is prohibited. However, the number of child pornography videos on the internet remain significant. The portal is expected to act as an information channel for the government to track the illegal activity and curb its circulation.

Timely investigation

MHA has asked all states to set up a cyber cell in state police headquarters to look into the complaints of child pornographic content. It has insisted on a timely investigation and call to action. On the portal, people can register complaints anonymously. They are also allowed to share the link or upload the video to the portal based on which the police can take action.

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The TOI reported, "In a letter on Tuesday, the home ministry informed the states all the complaints received on the cyberpolice portal will automatically get transferred to respective states/UTs cyber cell having jurisdiction to act on complaints expeditiously. The nodal officer appointed by the director general of police will have jurisdiction all over the state and he can transfer the complaint to the concerned police station. It asked the states to operate this helpline in the nodal cyber cell itself."

Standard Operating Procedure

The centre drafted a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which was circulated to the states. It mentioned that the officers handling the case must save all the evidence provided by the complainant on the portal. Immediately, the officers shall issue notices to content hosting providers (CHPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to take down the material or block it.

The cyberpolice portal, MHA officials told TOI, will also be connected with the crime and criminal tracking network systems (CCTNS) in which all 15,000 police stations across the country are connected.

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