The Supreme Court has ruled that viewing, downloading, storing and sharing obscene content of children including child pornography is an offense under the Child Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO), which seeks to prevent sexual assault against children. The court observed that unless legal action is taken against those who view, store and share such videos, more people will view them. The apex court’s order overturned the Madras High Court ruling that made private viewing of such videos not a crime. The Supreme Court has directed all courts in the country no more to use the term child pornography as it does not cover the full extent of the serious crime against children, and are directed instead to use Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM). The court suggested that the Parliament bring in an amendment to the POCSO Act to change the phrase.Collecting and sharing pornography is a multi-billion business globally. There are huge international networks that trap and victimise children in this unethical trade. They film sex scenes by befriending or threatening children or taking advantage of poverty and climate change, and sell them all over the world.Most of the victims are poor people in underdeveloped countries. Pornography is a big time business in the so-called civilized countries. The advent of the internet has expanded their business and market. Though several such sites have been banned in our country, countless of them are still available. Their influence on the crimes committed against women and children in the country is great.
For some time now, the Cyber division of Kerala police has been carrying out extensive raids, under the name of Operation P Hunt, to take action against those who search, collect and disseminate child pornography videos and photos. From techies to ordinary people and students are trapped. Raids are conducted after monitoring internet searches and sharing via Telegram, WhatsApp, e-mail etc. It follows, cases, arrest, and seizure of equipment. Hundreds of videos were recovered from a young man in Aranmula who downloaded sexual videos of children and sold them through Telegram. Our country has implemented many laws and policies for the rights and protection of children. They include Child Rights Act, Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, Integrated Child Development and Protection Programme. The Juvenile Justice Act of 2000 and the POCSO Act of 2012 are legislations to protect children from abuse. However, we are not yet able to prevent sexual violence against children. Hopefully, ensuring stricter punishments for those who use and distribute perverted videos, which are a major trigger for violence, will marginally reduce violence. Many people fall into various pitfalls after mobile phone has become daily life item as well as a learning tool for children. The solution is to have proper control systems in the mobile phones.
Awareness about sexual exploitation of children and its consequences should start from schools and homes. The Supreme Court has directed that teachers, health workers and law enforcement officials should be trained to recognize the signs of dangerous sexual behavior. However, it should be ensured that the law is not misused. As hacking of phone and WhatsApp are so common today, this law is also likely to be misused. We live in a time when cops make money by trapping people after buying and sneaking drugs in their cars. Given this, there are high chances of fabricating cases by bringing in such material through malware after confiscating phones.The court itself has to give proper instructions to prevent the possibility of misuse. Each child is an eye candy, and citizen of tomorrow. The law, court and society should not hesitate to go any length to oppress those who approach them with camera eyes and sell them in the market of immorality.