Even as the Supreme Court last week constituted a committee of representatives to explore technical solutions and block videos of rape and child pornography from being circulated on social media, a married woman from East Champaran district of Bihar filed a complaint against five men of her village who raped her, filmed the incident and circulated the video on WhatsApp.
While the discourse over the “rising rape culture” has made significant progress since the infamous Delhi gang-rape of 2012, the discussion about its digital manifestation is minimal and the number of rape and child pornographic videos being shared online only rises.
The Supreme Court constituted a committee, including members from the Central government and Internet majors, to explore technical solutions and block videos of such sexual offences in the digital world. The committee, comprising nominees of Google India, Microsoft India, Yahoo India, Facebook and others, have been given 15 days to come up with a ‘concrete solution’ to the issue.
The court took suo motu cognizance of the issue based on a letter sent by a Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala. The organisation had also sent two such rape videos, which were circulated on WhatsApp. According to media reports, such videos are not just circulated, but sometimes sold for anywhere between `20 and `200.
While experts and activists have welcomed the Supreme Court’s action, technical limitations and lack of a sturdy reporting system remain issues of concern, especially regarding child pornography. Years after Internet made its way into homes and phones, India is yet to comprehensively collate data on the prevalence of child pornography. In 2015, only 96 such cases were reported, a 135 per cent increase from the previous year.
Independent studies peg the numbers to be much higher. A study conducted by ChildLine India Foundation in 2007 claimed that over 48 per cent of children below 12 years of age surveyed admitted to have being photographed naked.
Grappling with the issue, authorities recently sought the help of Interpol to crack down on websites posting such content. Experts claim the biggest challenge in restricting content is that most of it is hosted from other countries.
According to data compiled by UK-based Internet Watch Foundation, only 2 per cent of all child pornography material was produced in Asia in 2015, while a whopping 57 per cent came from North America and 41 per cent
from Europe.