EXTENDING NET OF PROTECTION ONLINE

The recent decision by the Supreme Court in the Just Rights for Children Alliance (2024) case holds phenomenal significance in this digital age.

- ERINA CHATTERJEE

It is painfully true that children are increasingly falling prey to all forms of electronic media content.

Physical and mental abuse have been always prevalent in society in overt and covert forms. However, in this digital age, the abuse has acquired multifaceted dimensions.

Especially, the obnoxious urge among certain people to view child sexual exploitative and abusive material (CSEAM) has made victimisation of children more dominant.

With potential questions on the right to privacy in the background, the issue on pornography has always been whether such viewing is an immoral act per se or permissible under certain closed-door conditions.

In Just Rights for Children Alliance, on the issue of electronic child pornographic content, the Supreme Court held that the mere storage or possession of pornographic material involving a child, when done with a specific intent, is an offence without requiring any actual transmission or dissemination, and is violative of the POCSO Act read with Section 67B of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008.

The POCSO Act seeks to safeguard the rights of children in all situations of actual or potential abuse. While Section 15 of the Act lists the cases where a person can be held allegedly guilty for dealing with CSEAM, Section 30 presumes a culpable state of mind on the part of the alleged offender.

On the other hand, Section 67B of the IT Act criminalises any act of transmission of obscene material involving children.