The Commission sent separate notices to each of the platforms and sought a reply by April 30.
A notice was issued to Google, Twitter, and WhatsApp on Saturday by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) over child pornography.
Citing the report by an NGO named India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) of Child Sexual Abuse Material in India, the Commission said that the internet traffic in India belonging to child porn increased by 95 per cent between March 24 and 26, as compared to the traffic before the lockdown.
The Commission sent separate notices to each of the platforms and sought a reply by April 30.
"The Commission while conducting the independent inquiry on availability of online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) noticed that the Pornographic Material is accessible through the Apps available on Google Play Store. By mere downloading these Apps from the platform, the user can access such material. This is enabling the reach/accessibility of the children to such material and hence, is a serious matter. Further, there is also a possibility that the CSAM is also available on these Apps making it much grave issue," NCPCR said in its notice to Google.
To WhatsApp, the Commission said that there are certain links available to join “encrypted WhatsApp groups” and the “CSAM and pornographic material is rampantly present” in these groups. The links to these “encrypted WhatsApp groups” were found to be propagated and available on the internet. Any user by merely following these links can join these “encrypted WhatsApp groups” and can obtain the CSAM and pornographic material through these group chats on their phones.
"This enables the reach of the children to pornographic material. Further, there is also the possibility that the perpetrators are also present and active on these “encrypted WhatsApp groups” which makes children even more vulnerable. Therefore, it is a very serious matter," the notice to WhatsApp further read.
In its notice to Twitter, NCPCR said, "The Commission noticed that there are encrypted WhatsApp groups and the CSAM is rampantly present in these groups. The links to these groups were found to be propagated by various handles on Twitter. The Commission is of the view that propagating links of these WhatsApp groups on Twitter handles is a serious matter. Further, it is seen that as per your standard terms and conditions, a person of 13 years and above is eligible to open an account on Twitter, if you are allowing children at the age of 13 to open an account, the Commission is of the view that you can’t allow the other users to publish, propagate pornographic material, links etc. on Twitter. Another concern of the Commission is that the accessibility of the pornographic material to the children through these links on Twitter."
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