Link exists between porn and rape cases: PIL in SC

New Delhi: A public interest litigation (PIL) sought the Supreme Court to direct the Bureau of Research and Development (BPRD) to collect data from every police organisation across the country to prove a direct connection between porn and rape, Asian News International reported.

The PIL, filed by advocate Nalin Kohli, informed the court about the Assam Police' investigation into the murder of a six-year-old girl, which revealed that the four involved in the crime, including two minor boys of eight and eleven, were porn addicts.

The PIL demanded that data collection should be in a time-bound manner, and the police need to formulate an SOP to include the aspect of viewing porn while investigating the mentioned type of cases. It also sought the court to direct state governments to involve to make the data collection smoother.

The petitioner pointed out the alarming increase in violence against women children across the country. He argued that there is a link exists between watching porn or sexually explicit content, particularly violent or non-consensual sexual content, and cases of rape and sexual assault. Such content might be acting as a stimulus. Perpetrators of sexual assaults commit murders in an attempt to eliminate evidence. There are studies proving his argument, he told the court.

He further said that newspapers are now filled with news of such gruesome incidents, and a large per cent of victims are children. Sex education for appropriate sexual behaviour has become critically important now and should be included in education, but the same is considered taboo, he said.