New Delhi yet to initiate transnational efforts to curb online child sex abuse

Despite the Supreme Court last month constituting a panel to discuss the ways in which online child pornography can be curbed, India is found wanting in transnational efforts to arrest the problem.

The apex court had asked the panel — which has representatives from the Home, IT ministries from the government side and from companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. — to understand whether it is technologically feasible and viable to stop access to viewership of websites that carry child pornography.

As the internet is a transnational entity, only a collective effort can stop the problem in its tracks. However, India is missing from those discussions.

India is not a part of the Virtual Global Task Force, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies from countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea, Canada, UAE, Colombia, Italy, New Zealand, Philippines, the Interpol and the Europol, that combat online child abuse. India is also not a part of global initiatives like Reprotect Children — an initiative of the United Kingdom that has the participation of over 65 countries.

The cyber-crime department of the Interpol, too, has an initiative where it requests member countries for a cache of any child sex abuse content so …read more