Supreme Court questions Madras HC's verdict on child pornography, raises concerns

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has raised concerns over a shocking verdict by the Madras High Court, which stated that downloading child pornography is not an offense under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

The Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, issued notices to the Tamil Nadu Police and the accused, questioning the High Court's decision.

The Madras High Court's January ruling suggested that downloading child pornography, done "in privacy without affecting or influencing anyone else," does not qualify as an offense under POCSO or the Information Technology Act.

The Supreme Court argued that the accused must engage in creating, publishing, and transmitting material to be considered an offense under POCSO. Regarding the IT Act, it noted that the relevant section did not cover cases where individuals only downloaded and watched content without further actions.

The court's scrutiny came as it quashed proceedings against a 28-year-old man charged with downloading child pornographic content to his mobile phone, leading to the dropping of all legal actions against the accused. The High Court, while acknowledging the issue of children grappling with watching pornography, recommended counseling for those afflicted with this addiction.

In October of the previous year, the central government had issued notices to social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Telegram, warning them of losing legal immunity if they did not urgently address the problem of child pornography. The platforms were instructed to permanently remove or disable access to such content.

This action followed reports that Instagram housed a vast network of illegal sexual content, with algorithms linking and promoting this network on the platform.