Child Pornography: Cybercrimes against Children Across the Country have Increased by more than 400%

Publishing or transmitting anything sexual or nude act in the electronic form of children is child pornography.
Source: Google, Image by- NEWS10 ABC
Source: Google, Image by- NEWS10 ABC

Pornography includes anything that is sexual in nature and is based on sexual acts and nudity, it could be photos, videos, text, and audio. Anti-pornography law applies to publishing or transmitting such material electronically, to someone. Those who prepare nude or pornographic videos of others or make MMS and transmit them to others through electronic means, send pornographic messages to someone against their will, they are also involved in this.

What is child pornography?

Source: Google, Image by- The Indian Express
Source: Google, Image by- The Indian Express

Publishing or transmitting anything sexual or nude act in the electronic form of children is child pornography. Going further, the law states that creating, collecting, locating, viewing, downloading, advertising, promoting, transacting with, or sharing child pornographic material is illegal. Children here means- humans below the age of 18 years.

Seducing children into online relationships, then having sex with them or recording sexual activity involving children, creating MMS, sending it to others. etc. is also covered under this.

Let's us tell you about the cases of Pornography

First case – online meeting, virtual friendship, and then sexual abuse for months

13-year-old Aishwarya (name changed) from Hyderabad hails from a middle-class family. Aishwarya, the only daughter of a software engineer father and doctor mother, spends a lot of time surfing the internet apart from studies. In the year 2018, Aishwarya befriends an adult woman on the social media platform Facebook. In the initial days, both of them have a hi-hello, general conversation, then gradually Aishwarya starts sharing her personal things with this woman.

Aishwarya has teased for a long time that my body shape is not good and that is why my friends keep making fun of me. Aishwarya expressed her problem to her Facebook female friend. The Facebook lady consoles Aishwarya that she will help her in getting her body shape right.

After this Aishwarya starts taking physical training from the woman on video chatting and, in this sequence, Aishwarya is asked to take off her clothes and do some exercises related to the private part.

About 4 months later, Aishwarya's cousin finds a child porn video while surfing the internet and sees a very 'dirty' video of her sister Aishwarya. When the family came to know about this, they were horrified. Parents shared this entire incident with Sunitha Krishnan, who was engaged in the campaign to stop child crime. Sunitha has also been awarded the Padma Shri in 2016 for her social work.

Sunitha says that 'Aishwarya's case was such a case of online child abuse in which the victim girl never even realized that she was being sexually abused. When Aishwarya came to know about the child porn video, she locked herself in the room and refused to meet anyone.

Aishwarya's family refused to file this case with the police. It is clear that like Aishwarya, many cases do not even come in the police records. Therefore, this problem of online child sexual abuse is much bigger than the figures.

Second case- a 16-year-old girl from Kerala

The cybercrime team of Kerala Police found horrifying videos of a minor girl during surveillance on the darknet. The police had to struggle hard in the dark web of the Internet for three months. The IP address of the origin of this video was traced through special software and a horrifying story came out.

In January 2021, after the first wave of Covid, a 16-year-old girl Radhika (name changed) is sexually abused in a house just 3 km from the police headquarters in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram. The sexual abuser was not an outsider but Radhika's uncle. Along with sexually abusing Radhika, her video was also made, and then her uncle would sell that video in the child pornography market.

Manoj Abraham, ADG of Kerala Police and Head of Cyber ​​Department, says that- 'We have found many such cases in which only the parents or acquaintances of children are recording porn content. Live streaming of child pornographic content makes a good amount of money. In this way also exploitation of children is going on at home itself'.

80% of victims are girls below 14 years of age

According to the latest Interpol report, only 2.4 million cases of online child sexual abuse have been reported in India between 2017 and 2020. 80% of the victims are girls under the age of 14.

Recently, the CBI raided 70 locations in 14 states in connection with child pornography. After interrogation, the agency has arrested 7 people from places like Delhi, Noida, Dhenkanal, Jhansi, and Tirupati.

About 7 million people in India are patients of paedophilia

The disease of sexual attraction towards children is called 'paedophilia'. According to research, about 1% of the adult male population has sexual fantasies towards children and may suffer from paedophilia.

According to this, about 7 million people in India can be patients of paedophilia. Paedophilia occurs in women, but its number is very small. Therefore, the ICPF report also revealed that 90% of the watchers of child porn are men.

Many people like to see teenagers (children who are starting puberty) sexually. This disease is called hebephilia. Experts say that the reasons behind these diseases are not yet clear, but many people suffer from paedophilia and hebephilia, who want an easy way to control their choices.

Mimansa Singh Tanwar, Clinical Psychologist at Fortis Healthcare, says that- 'Paedophilia is a disease, which is an abnormal thing. This is a dangerous thing for any person to happen. If a person feels that he is enjoying watching child porn, it means that he suffers from paedophilia'.

What is the reason for the sexual attraction of children?

Mimansa Singh says that when we try to find the cause of any mental illness, we get confused. While we need to understand that our society is slowly becoming more aggressive, paedophilia is also a side effect of this. The content of pornography is already offensive in nature and child porn on the other hand is even more aggressive in nature.

What is the treatment for paedophilia or hebephilia?

Experts say that if you feel that you want to watch or enjoy watching sexual content related to children, then first of all understand that it is not normal, it is a disease/addiction. Treatment of this disease is also available. You should first seek treatment from a psychologist. Ignoring it can be dangerous for you.

'The wounds of child porn victims never heal'

When someone is sexually abused or raped, this incident leaves deep wounds on the psychology of the person. This wound gets healed with time, but if the video of sexual abuse goes viral, then these wounds can never heal. The Internet and social media continue to inflict these wounds over and over again. To heal these wounds, proper treatment is needed. In the case of children, more sensitive care is necessary.

Child rights activist Sunitha Krishnan, narrating the case of a victim of a child porn racket, says that- 'The impact of crime related to child porn keeps on repeatedly affecting the victim, it becomes very difficult to get closure to the crime. The reason for this is that the video goes viral.

How should parents deal with victimized children?

Psychologist Mimamsa Singh states that injuring a person's privacy shakes him\her on a psychological level. Children begin to develop a sense of insecurity. They feel that they can be sexually abused anywhere. Parents should understand that it has a very deep impact on the psychology of children.

Children should feel that you are with them in every situation, good or bad. Children should have this belief that they can easily share every personal thing with you. Parents will also have to make children aware of digital media and the internet and keep warning about its dangers. If there is a significant difference in the behaviour of the children, then contact a psychologist.

Lastly, one thing to do – if you see any content related to child porn anywhere, what will you do as a vigilant citizen? Siddharth Pillai, a member of NGO Aarambh India working on child rights, says that- 'If you see any such video or image on the Internet in which a child is being sexually abused, then you have to report it immediately so that this content can be blocked on the media and it can be prevented from further sharing.

Child porn content highest in India

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), an American NGO working on Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), India ranks first in the world in terms of content related to child porn.

According to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently, cybercrimes against children across the country have increased by more than 400% in 2020 as compared to 2019. Most of these cases are related to the publication and transmission of material depicting children in sexual acts. A major reason for this increase has been the Covid period.

On the dark web, porn is traded through crypto 

Police investigation revealed that during Covid, there was a surge in the number of groups related to child porn content on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram. The people involved in the racket spread child porn content to the people through similar channels. Such content is bought and sold on the dark web and payment is made in cryptocurrencies. Both the seller and the buyer of the content do not even know each other. Police use special software to catch such content and its trading.

What is the law on child pornography?

According to Indian law, it is a crime to shoot, produce and share child pornography. Also, possessing and viewing child porn content is also a crime. Under sections 14 and 15 of the POSCO Act 2012, the use of any child for child pornography is punishable with imprisonment of up to 5 years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh. Along with this, it is also an offence to keep, browse, download, advertise, promote, share any kind of child nude content under section 67B of the IT Act.

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