Pornography: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
The legal position
The laws
See graphics:
i) Pornography laws in India: April 2013-April 2014;, and 2) Pornography laws in India: May 2014-August 2015
An overview, As in 2021
From: July 25, 2021: The Times of India
See graphic:
Pornography and the law, As in 2021
Watching pornography in private is not an offence: HC
Sep 13, 2023: The Times of India
Kochi : Watching pornographic photographs or videos in one’s private time without showing it to others is not an offence under the law as it is a matter of personal choice, the Kerala high court has held.
The HC said that declaring such an act as an offence would amount to intrusion of a person’s privacy and interference with his personal choice.
The ruling by Justice P V Kunhikrishnan came while quashing a case of obscenity under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code against a 33-yearold man, who was back in 2016 caught by police while watching porn videos on his mobile phone on the roadside near the Aluva palace. The ruling came on the accused person’s plea to quash the FIR and the court proceedings against him. The court said pornography was in practice for centuries and the new digital age has made it more accessible, even to children.
“The question to be decided is whether a person watching a porn video in his private time without exhibiting it to others amounts to an offence? A court of law cannot declare that the same amounts to an offence as it is his private choice and interference with the same amounts to an intrusion of his privacy,” it said. “If the accused is trying to circulate or distribute or publicly exhibit any obscene video or photos, then the offence under Section 292 IPC is attracted,” Justice Kunhikrishnan said. PTI
Child Pornography: Incidence/ prevalence of
2015-17: the worst affected cities
Himanshi Dhawan, Jan 22 2017: The Times of India
The arrest of American linguistics expert Ja mes Kirk Jones last week for possessing and sharing nearly 30,000 files of child pornography had jolted Hyderabad. Recent government data shows the rot runs deeper: alongside metros, many of India's tier-II cities were the worst offenders on surfing and sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Amritsar, Lucknow, Alappuzha and Thrissur were among the 10 worst cities where CSAM was shared on multiple occasions.
Amritsar took top place with more than 4.3 lakh “files of interest“ -code for child porn -shared between July 1, 2016 and January 15, 2017. Delhi was second, followed by Lucknow. There are cities like Agra, Kanpur, Bar rackpore and Dimapur where we had not seen any surfing for CSAM (child sexual abuse material) until six months ago.
Here too there is significant growth,“ said a government source. The data is limited to IP addresses originating in the country , but there are several instances of surfers using TOR (The Onion Router) to mask or reroute their IP address, making it appear as if they are based in another country , to avoid being tracked.
Online child porn is directly linked to offline child abuse. “For every child porn video, there is a child abuse victim somewhere,“ said Vidya Reddy from Tulir -Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse. “The accessibility of technology has ensured that CSAM is more easily available than ever before,“ she added. In fact, Jones was also using a peer-to-peer, filesharing network -GigaTribe, to stay in contact with 490 `like-minded' friends.
Despite the large volume of child porn being shared through private social media groups, reporting remains abysmally low.The National Crime Records Bureau has registered just about 1,540 cases of online child sexual abuse in 2015-16. If not for an Interpol alert, Jones too would have flown under the radar.
In fact, according to cyber crime law expert Prashant Mali, few people even realise that watching or downloading child porn is a crime.“Under the present laws, watching or sharing such material is a non-bailable offence attracting up to 7 years imprisonment and a Rs 10 lakh penalty ,“ says Mali.
A major hurdle in the detection of online CSAM is the international nature of the crime. “A person could ostensibly view porn in India, which may have its server in Russia, its pay-site in Scotland and be hosted in Austria,“ says Reddy of Tulir. “We need a transnational police force with state-ofthe-art forensic laboratories and a cohesive policy .“
A step in the right direction was taken this week by Union minister Maneka Gandhi, who announced the establishment of a national alliance that would coordinate with law enforcement agencies, ministries, information technology experts, Interpol, and NGOs to curb the proliferation of CSAM online. The alliance will achieve its objective by blocking websites that host CSAM, setting up a hotline for complaints and placing restrictions on the travel of known sex offenders into the country . The minister has already written to the MEA asking for such visa restrictions be put in place.
India’s rank among worst offenders
2017
Ambika Pandit , Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
From: Ambika Pandit , Oct 1, 2019: The Times of India
New research has placed India at the top of the list of countries from where the maximum number of reports (38.8 lakh) related to suspected online child sexual abuse imagery (CSAI) originated. Of the over 2.3 crore reports available with the United States-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) from 1998 to 2017, India, Indonesia and Thailand account for 37%.
In terms of volume of reports per 1,000 estimated internet users for each country, however, the top three countries involved in CSAI are Iraq, Thailand and Somalia. While the volume of reports in Thailand is 63.8 per 1,000, the number for India at 11.9 per 1,000 is much lower.
The results illustrate that CSAI has grown exponentially globally, to nearly 1 million detected events per month. Of the over 2.3 crore reports of suspected incidents of CSAI, almost a crore or 40% occurred in 2017 alone. That’s an exponential rise from the 5.7 lakh reports NCMEC received in its first ten years of operation.
In the list of top 10 countries in terms of number of reported events, Indonesia is at second place with 17.4 lakh, followed by Thailand, Mexico, Bangladesh, the United States, Brazil, Vietnam, Algeria and Pakistan.
Child pornography and the law
Punishment for child porn possession/ 2018
WCD Hopes To Get Law Min Nod By Next Week
Possession of child pornographic material for commercial use, viewing and storage of such material and their transmission and distribution may soon invite severe punishment, including a hefty fine and jail term extending up to five years. It will be treated as a non-bailable offence and, on second conviction, the accused may face a jail term of up to seven years.
The proposed amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act also include penalties for not mandatorily reporting child pornography as also possession of pornographic pictures and videos on WhatsApp.
The proposal is awaiting the approval of the law ministry and the ministry of women and child development is hoping to get it by next week to be able to take the amendments to the Cabinet soon, sources said. Growing instances of pornography involving children have been seen with concern by the Prime Minister’s Office, which has initiated steps to make it a very serious offence, sources told TOI.
Those storing child porn for biz to face strict action
WCD minister Maneka Gandhi has been raising concern over child pornography and crimes like revenge porn and the need to put in place necessary checks, including changes in law.
The amendments have been proposed in Section 15 of the POCSO Act. It is proposed that any person who “stores or possesses” any pornographic material in any form involving a child “but fails to delete/destroy or report” the same to the designated authority shall be punished with a fine not less than Rs 1,000. In the event of a second or subsequent offence, the fine shall not be less than Rs 5,000. (TOI has seen the documents under consideration) The amendments are also being made regarding “transmitting, propagating and distributing” such material “in any manner except for the purpose of reporting… and for use as evidence in court”.
The most serious action will be taken against a person who stores any pornographic material “for commercial use”. As of now under Section 15, punishment may extend to three years or fine or both. This is proposed to be amended to ensure that the guilty shall be punished on the first conviction with imprisonment which may not be less than three years, and may extend up to five years. In the event of second or subsequent conviction, the minimum punishment will be for five years which could be extended to seven years.
Watching child porn in private not crime under Pocso or IT Act: HC
Suresh Kumar, January 13, 2024: The Times of India
Watching child porn in private not crime under Pocso or IT Act: HC SOLO SHOW
Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com
Chennai : Mere downloading and watching child pornography is not an offence under the Pocso Act and Information Technology Act, Madras HC said.
To make out an offence under Pocso Act, a child or children must have been used for pornography purposes. And to constitute an offence under Information Technology Act, the accused must have published, transmitted and created the material, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said.
Quashing the prosecu- tion initiated against a 28year-old man who was booked under Pocso and IT Acts for downloading and watching child porn, the judge cited a Kerala HC judgment, which took a similar stand. “…in view of the fact that this act is done by the person in privacy without affecting or influencing anyone else. The moment the accused person tries to circulate or distribute or publicly exhibits obscene photos or videos, then the ingredients of the offence starts kicking in,” Justice Venkatesh said. Like smoking and drinking, watching porn videos has become an addiction for the current generation and punishment cannot be a solution, he added.
“The Gen Z children are grappling with this serious problem and instead of damning and punishing them, society must be mature enough to properly advise and educate them and try to counsel them to get rid of that addiction,” the judge said.
The court advised the petitioner, who was present in person, to attend counselling.
Definition of Child Pornography
2019
July 12, 2019: The Times of India
Finally, child porn gets a definition
New Delhi:
In its bid to effectively stamp out child porn, the Centre has for the first time come up with a definition of what encompasses child pornography. Anyone found in possession of even digital or computer-generated sexually explicit images that appear to depict a child will have to face punishment, as per provisions proposed in the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Amendment Bill approved by the Cabinet.
According to the women and child development ministry, the definition elaborates that “any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child which includes photographs, videos, digital or computer-generated image indistinguishable from an actual child and an image created, adapted or modified but appear to depict a child”.
It is proposed to widen the ambit of investigation and punishment under POCSO to cover even adults feigning as children in porn, morphed images of children, and animations depicting child porn. To be tabled in Parliament in the current session, the bill proposes that any person who stores or possesses porn in any form involving a child but fails to delete, destroy or report the same shall be fined between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. The upper limit for fine has been kept open, an official said. In the previous bill tabled in January, the fine for first-time offenders was Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 for a repeat offence.
Types of pornography preferred, major sources
2016
The Times of India, Apr 7, 2016
Indians love 'desi' porn, Delhi tops with 39% traffic
Syed Mohammed
TOI recently asked PornHub, a popular porn site, about viewership trends. The site revealed that trends New Delhi tops in viewership with 39.2 per cent of porn traffic. The top search terms for smut in India are "Indian college girls", "Indian bhabhi," "Bengali" and "Indian aunty".
Like Kolkatans, Delhiites average 9 minutes and 29 seconds per viewing session — 31 seconds longer than the national average. Delhi also seems to have a fetish for women's backsides.
PornHub, shows the "top relative category" in Delhi is "ass", which the city is 46 per cent more likely to watch than the rest of the country. The "school" category is also very popular, taking third place. Last August, the department of telecommunications banned 857 websites containing pornographic content, but later reversed the decision, limiting the ban to child pornography.
Chennai is a distant second in terms of an appetite for porn. It accounts for a little under 6 per cent of traffic and displays parochial tastes with the top search category being "Tamil". Chennaites also have the shortest viewing sessions, averaging 7 minutes and 52 seconds, as against the national average of 8 minutes and 58 seconds. Mumbai, fourth in terms of traffic, hasthe most Oedipal of porn viewers as 46 per cent are more likely to watch videos of older women.
Kolkata, ranked fifth, is the only city with a taste for 'hentai', a form of Japanese animated pornography. The most searched celebrity in India is Sunny Leone, followed by Mia Khalifa and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
Websites
2018: Govt bans 827 porn sites
From: Rachel Chitra, Govt plays Net nanny, bans 827 porn sites; subscribers see red, November 1, 2018: The Times of India
Move Against Net Neutrality Laws: Viewers
India’s porn ban, extending to 827 websites, has thousands of mobile users up in arms. Particularly aggrieved are those who have paid annual subscriptions.
Pornhub, whose third largest customer base comes from India (the first two are US and UK), has created a mirror site Pornhub.net to get around the ban. Other sites like Behance.net have advised their clients to download the mobile app. The customer care divisions of Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone have been flooded with calls.
Thousands of tweets saw the hashtag #pornban, with users saying this goes against net neutrality laws in India, which prohibit discrimination against any content provider. Users feel the government should have taken strong action against child porn, rape porn and BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism types of sexual practice), and not against the more well-known porn websites like Pornhub and Xvideos.com, who ensure their content is above board.
That was a sentiment voiced also by Pornhub vice president Corey Price: “This is apparent by the fact that they only banned large sites like Pornhub, and didn’t block thousands of risky porn sites that may contain illegal content. There are no laws against pornography in India and watching adult content privately. It’s evident that the Indian government is using our sites as a scapegoat.”
Lawyer PK Rajagopal from the Madras HC, said in a mature democracy, decisions about what to watch should be left to viewers. “Banning child porn or violent content is acceptable. But a ban on nudity or porn amounts to moral policing. Our freedom of expression and right to consumption is protected by article (19) of the constitution,” he said.
There are supporters of the ban too, who point to studies showing clear links between porn and violence against women.
“There have been many studies showing that porn addiction can lead to sexual violence against women. In the largest interests of the public, the government might have undertaken this step. Net neutrality laws have been adopted. But there’s no such thing as absolute neutrality and absolute non-interference. Reasonable restrictions can be placed if the government has concerns,” said A Sirajudeen, senior advocate in the Supreme Court.
