25,000 Cases Of Child Porn Material Circulation In India In Last Five Months: US

The US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has shared its reports with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in India of over 25,000 cases of suspected child pornography material being uploaded on various social media platforms in the last five months in India.

NCMEC, established by the US Congress in 1984, is a private non-profit organisation involved in reducing child sexual exploitation and preventing child victimisation, in addition to similar issues related to children. Using tip-offs from individuals and service providers, and numerous software, the organisation, tracks child pornography online.

The obtained information is then shared with law enforcement agencies in the form of "Tipline reports."

According to a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official, the Indian government had signed an agreement with NCMEC last year following which they have started sending their Tipline reports on child pornography videos being uploaded online. "As of January 23, we have received over 25,000 such reports over the past five months," The Indian Express quoted an MHA official as saying.

According to the NCMEC report, most of the Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) was uploaded in Delhi.

"While Delhi has topped the list of states where most child porn is uploaded, other top states include Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP and West Bengal. Depending upon what the police agencies in these states find in investigations, FIRs will be registered," the official said.

The official added that FIRs will be registered based on the findings by police agencies in these states. A senior IPS officer from Maharashtra said that these cases were geo-tagged, and Excel sheets with PDFs attached passed on to jurisdictions under which the locations were based. Also, seven FIRs have already been registered in the state.