FROM FANTASY TO REALITY: VIEWING AND SPREADING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO MOLESTING CHILDREN, A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

The phenomenal growth in the accessibility of child pornography on social media has created a strange opportunity for individuals to have an anonymised, free of cost, and unrestrained approach to a virtually limitless range of lewd texts, pictures and animated gifs, and audio-visual materials. The online social media platforms are the pathways to offline molestation. Fantasy and reality are closely interwoven, though whether ‘thinking’ leads to ‘doing’ remains the critical question. Some people think watching child pornography is “just” an example of pseudo-reality, which does not molest children. However, on the other hand, those pictures of child pornography testify to a child’s sexual abuse in the past, present or even in the future. In a recent study conducted on 155 people who were involved in child pornography, it was found that 84% of such people had abused and molested a child at least once in their lifetime. Also, the “National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)” has reported near about 420 child sexual abuse and exploitation cases during the first month of the lockdown period of COVID-19 via social media platforms.

Therefore, we can say that child sexual offenders more often exploit children sexually through the collection, creation or dissemination of child pornography.

ONLINE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN THROUGH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

The widespread use of social media and online networking sites to inflict child abuse has resulted in a profusion of photographs and web pages in circulation, which is difficult to gauge precisely. The We Protect Global Alliance claimed in 2019 that in the previous year, US technology companies referred 18.4 million pieces of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) to the “National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)”. In 2019, EUROPOL explicitly stated that approximately 46 million different pictures or videos related to sexual abuse was found in its database. To track the distribution of digitised pornographic photographs of children is not the only difficult thing, but to follow the child abuse cases is also a difficult task as the child victims refuse to report sexual abuse due to the fear of exclusion from society and embarrassment. Children may be utterly clueless that they have been used or harmed at times.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the significant internet users are youngsters: 41% are below the age of 15 years, and 90% are between the ages 15 to 24 years. The “new” ways of social interaction among children and adults include sharing digitised sexual photos or audio-visual contents, which increase the risk of circumstances becoming violent or abusive. The “self-generated” sexual content which was once shared voluntarily has the potential to extend beyond the desired receiver, and it can have long-term repercussions for the child. The question is not with the creation of sexual material per se, as children have a right to express themselves, but the issue is with the distribution of such photographs by a third person without consent. As a result, while sharing sexual messages in a consensual way to interact socially and sexually with others, the sharing of sexual content without permission represents a criminal act that requires urgent legislative action”. Children are at risk not because of technology used; instead, they utilise a tool while being exploited.

SADIST PSYCHOLOGY: CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LEADING TO CHILD MOLESTATION

The main reason behind child pornography leading to child molestation is the sadist psychology of paedophiles. Such individuals force psychological, physical pain and suffering on the child victim to arouse sexually or gratify themselves. They get sexually aroused by the response of the child victim to the infliction of pain and suffering. Usually, the offenders entice or force the child victims to obtain satisfaction. In some cases, the seductive molesters have become sadistic molesters. However, the behaviour of such molesters is unknown, whether the sadistic desires were always present and covered up for some other reason or whether they were there for some time being. Whatever the case may be, it is fortunate enough that such sadistic child molesters do not appear to be significant in number.

Those who gather or distributes child pornography, on the other hand, is aiding or abetting the sexual abuse and exploitation child depicted.

RISE IN THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILD AND DEMAND FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY DURING COVID-19 IN INDIA

There was an alarming increase in the demand for child pornography content after the government had imposed a lockdown in the country during the COVID-19 outbreak. This lockdown has revealed a dark side of our society – many child rapists, paedophiles and viewers of child pornography have doubled their online activity, which is turning the online world more toxic for children. According to the emergency service “CHILDLINE 1098”, the calls from distressed children amid sexual abuse and exploitation was grown up by 50 per cent in the second week of lockdown in India. The India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) said in its report that on average, five million searches for content on child porn on the internet were done in over 100 cities in India during the lockdown period; by now, this demand may have increased by 100%. Also, according to the report shared by United Nations, EUROPOL, and ECPAT, the need for child sexually abusive material shows a steady increase during the COVID-19 lockdowns, which aims children online through social networking sites to groom them or to befriend them, establishing an emotional connection with them and persuading them to engage in sexual activities through images or videos.

INTERNATIONAL LAWS AND CONVENTIONS ON THE CRIMINALISATION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Sexual abuse and assault on children have always been illegal. As a result, child pornographic content involving the violent sexual exploitation and abuse of children has also been criminalised. On the other hand, the mere possession of child porn material has not always been an offence. Although, collecting, possessing, and distributing child pornographic material was first criminalised by the general common law prohibition of obscene materials.

Two instruments, namely, “United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)” and “Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography (OPSC)”, both of which came into force on January 18, 2002, have been established at the UN level. Many more regional, national, and international conventions safeguard children against Child Pornography and molestation.

• According to UNCRC, every child has some basic fundamental rights, and from which one is safeguarding children from violence, abuse, exploitation and mistreatment. Years before the issue exploded, Articles 34 to 36 of UNCRC provided by far the most direct international reference to the topic of child pornography.

• As established in Article 2 of OPSC, “the sale of children, prostitution of children and child pornography” are all prohibited, and also requires Member Nations to effectively implement legislation and regulations criminalising and effectively penalising nonetheless those acts linked to sexual abuse or violence on children and exploitation as provided in Article 3, namely the “sale of children to exploit them sexually, offer, obtain, or possession of children for sex trafficking and production, circulation, distribution, import and export, sale or possession of child pornographic content including an attempt to and conspiring or involvement in committing any of the activities mentioned above”.

• “The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children”,which is a companion to the “United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime”, mandates all 165 signatory States to make trafficking of any person, including child trafficking and sexual exploitation of children, illegal and criminalise it.

• “Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime”aims to facilitate provisions on online molestation and abuse of children and some ICT-based harassment of children and other such offences under Article 9, which is regarding child pornography. This Convention has 42 Member States, including six nations of the Council of Europe that are not a member. It was enacted in 2001 and was one of the first conventions that lay down Internet Crimes provisions.

• “Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse” contains child pornography in its preamble. It clearly states that sexual abuse can be used as a synonym for child pornography. It also includes Sexual Tourism, which is not mentioned in any other Conventions. But this Convention omitted the ambit of prosecution for viewing and collecting or possessing child pornography.

• “African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child”mandates the Member nations to protect children from all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation of a child and to safeguard the children from online sexual offences using Child Pornography under Article 27.

In the United States of America, various statutes safeguard children’s rights and protect them from sexual abuse and child pornography. Some of them are –

• “National Strategy for Child Exploitation, Prevention and Interdiction.”

• Ashcroft vs Free Speech Coalition, this case interprets “simulated images”. It puts forward a question regarding Internet Child Pornography: “What is the basis of classifying simulated or pseudo pornographic photographs?”

LAWS AND REGULATIONS IN INDIA DEALING WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

In India, 42% of the overall population comprises people under eighteen. This figure says that India has the largest population of children worldwide. It becomes the first and foremost responsibility of the country to safeguard the interest of children and protect them from any abuse and exploitation to envisage future development. The provisions and legislations about criminalising child pornography are discussed below.

In 2019, the members of Lok Sabha had passed a bill named “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019” (now an Act), which seeks to amend the landmark legislation for child rights “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012” and provides that death penalty will be awarded to the person on committing aggravated sexual assault on children. Also, it criminalises and penalises child pornography in India.

According to “Section 67-B of the Information Technology Act, 2000”, “whoever seeks to download, browse, collects and downloads child pornography is an offender.”

The Indian government has taken some steps to curb child pornography in India. However, these legislations and provisions are insufficient to curb this problem. In India, viewing child pornography privately is not illegal, leading to the sexual abuse of children. In 2015, the Supreme Court of India remarked that blocking the porn websites in India can’t stop adults from watching porn under the privacy of the room’s four walls. However, “sale, distribution and exhibition of obscene material to any person below the age of 20 years” is illegal and a cognisable offence under Section 273 of Indian Penal Code, 1860, despite which child pornography is available for sale and distributed in India. Laws and their implementations are the north and south poles of Earth.

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of national and international instruments that address the problem of child exploitation and abuse on the internet due to the increase in Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). But there is no proper enforcement of laws. There is a gap in the national efforts in addressing the issue. Also, there is no enhanced law in India that penalises the production and transmission of Child Pornography separately. Child Pornography must be dealt with individually and viewed as a more harmful and heinous offence keeping in mind the vulnerability of children. Also, there must be provisions where it is mandated to report Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to track the child sexual abuse offenders. But in India, mediators are not responsible for reporting third party information to any agency. Similarly, the payment industries or banks are also not responsible for communicating to the law enforcement agencies any transfer or transaction of money to purchase or sell CSAM. One more step can be taken, i.e., to oblige ICT companies to use tech tools to keep an eye on the activities happening on their platforms within their networks. In India, jurisdictional issues create hindrances in law enforcement. It causes a delay in getting permission from the Central Government to investigate the case. Therefore, the heinous offence’s procedural and prosecution should speedily deliver justice. There are various undue consequences, e.g., relationship mismanagement with a partner, change in appetite and phenomenal insomnia, remained between work and psycho-social repercussions on childhood or adolescent sexual assault. Psychological effects can hurt their lives, leading to stress or depression and even other products like mental trauma. This issue impacts both the sufferers and even their family members and society. Considering the adverse effect of porn on young minds, it is need of the hour that the national laws on child pornography be tightened up, and it’s high time now to punish those people of sadistic minds who enjoy watching children in pain and then abuse and harass children sexually. Managing, producing, distributing and exhibiting child pornography leads to child molestation and causes mental and physical harm to the child victims. In the age of enjoying childhood, the children are being used for filming child pornography and being sexually assaulted. Therefore, to protect children’s rights, stringent steps must be taken by the international instruments and the Indian government to curb such ill practices.

The main reason behind child pornography leading to child molestation is the sadist psychology of paedophiles. Such individuals force psychological, physical pain and suffering on the child victim to arouse sexually or gratify themselves. They get sexually aroused by the response of the child victim to the infliction of pain and suffering. Usually, the offenders entice or force the child victims to obtain satisfaction.

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