The Emerging Contours Of Online Sexual Crimes: An Indian Scenario

Dr. Rakesh Chandra, Academician

ABSTRACT

The advent of the Internet Age in the past two decades has ushered in the unprecedented growth of social media and other digital media platforms which are being used by millions of followers. On these platforms, the spread of sexual content is quite menacing. Particularly, in the field of pornography, children are constantly being used as fodder. Last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had conducted a pan-India operation "Megh Chakra" against the Online circulation and sharing of Child Sexual Abusive Material (CASM) using cloud- based storage, culminating in 83 arrests in 78 cities for making obscene videos of children. The Pandemic effect and the increased economic vulnerability have contributed to a 400% increase in the sexual exploitation of children in videos in 2020 over the previous year. An ad hoc Committee of the Rajya Sabha, headed by Jairam Ramesh, in its report of 2020, made wide-ranging recommendations on the alarming issue of pornography on social media and its effect on children and society as a whole. Recently, amendments have been made in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act,2012 covering the matter of child pornography by using the online medium also. The issue of Sexual exploitation of children has got wider ramifications in regard to their normal growth as well as that of the nation. Today 's child is a future citizen of the country. This paper tries to explore various dimensions of this problem, the role of POCSO Act, 2012, and the legal scenario existing at present. It also suggests some plausible solutions to check the menacing problem.

Keywords: POCSO Act,2012, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), Child Pornography, Social Media, Internet Service Providers.