Lily PooniaContributing Author, Rightantra The demand and sharing of Child Pornography has increased at an alarming rate with the increased accessibility of the internet. Alarmingly, 35-38% of the total pornographic material uploaded on the web is related to children. In 1998, over 3,000 cases were registered against websites containing child pornography. The number of cases increased to over 100,000 just a decade later, and in the year 2014, the number exceeded 1 million for the first time. Last year, there were 18.4 million reported cases of child pornography across the world. In spite of the widely prevalent consensus against child pornography, the ever-increasing statistics of users are staggering. Given the unnerving increase, it is extremely crucial that we should be aware of the various legal provisions which strictly prohibit the same. Awareness is crucial to:
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) POCSO is the primary piece of legislation for tackling child abuse in India. It is a wider legislation which also includes sexual assault and harassment. To know more about these provisions, you can refer to Rightantra’s POCSO series which focuses on preventing and punishing child sexual abuse under POCSO. The links for the following are:
It also criminalises:
Information Technology Act The IT Act provides a relief in the world of internet which provides easy and fast access to child pornography, by penalising a variety of offences encompassing child pornography--namely:
Child Pornography speaks against the ability of the society to protect its most vulnerable section. Statutory measures, filtering technologies and self-regulation are imperative in the fight against child pornograaphy. We need to ensure that there are stringent legal provisions, their effective implementation and awareness to provide a safe environment for every child to grow. Our next articles provide for solutions from the end of the persons who come in contact with children regularly as well as from the end of governmental authorities around the world. References:
Please note that this is NOT legal advice but the legal opinion of the author and is for informational purposes only.
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