The Uttar Pradesh Police is all set to 'monitor' the users consuming pornographic content online. The digital data of such users will be taken into consideration by the department.
The initiative has been taken under UP Police's 1090 Women Power Line (WPL) service. A team has been hired to monitor those who watch porn on the internet and keep the data that includes the number of times the user consumed the content and the duration.
The team will get alerts if a person searches for porn on the internet. Following this, the Police will reach out to the person to prevent "crimes against women", reported India Today.
Speaking about the initiative, ADG Neera Rawat said, "In view of the increasing use of the internet, the powerline 1090 would reach out to people to prevent crimes against women."
Rawat added: "To study the analytics of the internet, a company named 'Oomuph' has been hired, which will keep an eye on what is being searched on the internet through data. If a person sees pornography, the analytics team will get the information."
A pop-up alert will appear to the team, once an individual visits a pornographic website. The data will be recorded under the police vigilance.
One of the officials from the WPL said that the initiative aimed to monitor the adolescents highly vulnerable to such content, affecting their mind and behaviour.
After reports of monitoring the data came up, the team clarified that the initiative would not infringe one's privacy and the pop-up message would appear on the sites of child pornography, reported Times of India.
WPL has launched a program called 'Hamari Suraksha' to spread awareness among social media users. Technical expert of the team Raghvendra Dwivedi asserted that no vigilance would be done to view any other website. "We will be working like Google feeds," he told the media.
Additional Director General (WPL 1090) of Police Neera Rawat said that the department is not a watchdog but intends to develop a 360-degree ecosystem for women's safety in the state.
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