As per the National Crime Records Bureau, 738 child pornography cases were recorded in India in 2020 alone. Smriti Zubin Irani, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, reaffirmed this in Parliament in response to a query from Congress MP Dr Shashi Tharoor.
This data now reveals a significant increase in the number of child pornography cases compared to 2019, when only 103 cases were reported. At the same time in 2018, the figures were only 44. In comparison to 2019, the number of cases of child pornography increased by 619 per cent in 2020. However, only 272 cases were charged in 2020, with no one being convicted. According to the data, four individuals were convicted in 2019 and one person was convicted in 2018.
Is this to say that child pornography became a problem in India only in 2020? Not in the least. The figures could simply reflect the fact that more people have come forward to report these incidents.
According to a report published on the legal news and commentary website jurist.org on May 14, 2020, a pornographic video is captured every 40 seconds in India, with about 38 per cent of those videos being linked to child sexual abuse, and child pornography accounting for 25 per cent of all search engine queries in India. During 25,000 pieces of alleged child sexual assault content were uploaded to social media platforms in India over the last five months, according to a recent investigation by the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Indian National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) (as on 2nd May 2020).
According to Vidya Reddy, who works at Tulir - Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse in Chennai, the true number of instances is likely to be far higher because only a small percentage of them are recorded. 'This isn't a straightforward crime. Almost every POCSO situation we've dealt with in the last six to seven years has had a technical component. When a youngster is molested, he or she is either shown pornographic material as part of the grooming process or the abuse is documented,' she explains.
Reddy also recalls a situation in which a father exposed children to pornography and Child Sexual Abuse Material. 'When I urged them to include section 67 B of the IT Act or sections 13 to 15 of the POCSO when we reported the incident, they said that All Women Police Stations cannot file cases on Information Technology; only Inspector Law and Order may do so. She was either inept or illiterate 'she explains. She also believes it is critical to establish an environment in which people are aware of their actions and seek help if they have a sexual interest in youngsters.
According to the Jurist study, nearly 3,000 charges were filed worldwide in 1998 against websites that contained child pornography. Only a decade later, the number of cases had risen to over 100,000, and in 2014, it surpassed 1 million for the first time. Around the world, 18.4 million cases of child pornography were recorded last year.