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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.


Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research

Abbreviation: IJLLR

ISSN: 2582-8878

Website: www.ijllr.com

Accessibility: Open Access

License: Creative Commons 4.0

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All research articles published in The Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research are fully open access. i.e. immediately freely available to read, download and share. Articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons license which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

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The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the IJLLR or its members. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the IJLLR.

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