NEW DELHI: To report online abuse and other cyber crimes on a real-time basis, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is all set to launch a web portal by the end of this month.
The portal will enable citizens to lodge complaints on child pornography, gang rape videos and child sexual abuse instantly.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh informed the Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that testing of the portal in Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh had been done already and efforts are on to establish connectivity with other states and Union Territories.
At present, the beta version of the portal, that is released to fix the bugs before the final portal is out, is running in the states.
The software is being developed by the MHA on the orders of the Supreme Court (SC) after it came to the court’s notice that there has been a rise in cyber-crimes, in particular those relating to circulation of videos of rape, gang rape and child pornography.
The SC also asked the government to put in place a Central Reporting Mechanism, as has been done in other countries particularly in the United States.
During the hearing, the court was also informed that there were several other ministries like the Ministry of Women and Child Development which were interested in taking corrective steps in so far as cyber crimes are concerned, especially those relating to rape, gang rape and child pornography.
Last year, the court had asked the Centre to set up a cell within the Central Bureau of Investigation or the MHA to report and take down such videos and messages, besides directing Google, Yahoo, Facebook, WhatsApp and Microsoft to immediately remove such videos when reported.
The response of the government came after the court took suo motu cognisance of a PIL filed by NGO Prajwala in 2015 and highlighted the availability of child porn and rape videos online.
NGO's have also mooted the idea of maintaining a national sex offenders' register which should contain details of persons convicted for offences like eve-teasing, stalking, molestation and other sexual assaults.