THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Aided by the anonymity by cyberspace and armed with modern encrypted software, a section of deviant Keralites are raking in the moolah by uploading obscene images of children, prompting the state police to seek the help of Interpol to clamp down on offenders.
Though several incidents of uploading of obscene contents of children were reported from the state before, the trend has grown in magnitude of late thanks to the penetration of technology to all strata of the society.
ADGP Manoj Abraham, who is also the nodal officer of Cyberdome, the police’s cyber research and development wing, said the footfall of Keralites has been on a steady rise in darknet sites that deal with child pornography and that is a disturbing trend.“It’s not about downloading such content. Uploading is regularly happening. Sadly, Kerala is a front-runner in this sordid act and surpasses many other big and rich states,” said Manoj. Manoj said uploading happens even from rural parts of the state and the materials are sold at an exorbitant rate to international users. “The transaction is done in bitcoins as monitoring its flow is difficult” he added.
As per sources, northern districts account for much of the child abuse material uploaders, with Malappuram district as its epicentre. To deal with the crisis, the police have sought more cooperation from the Interpol. As a continuation of the training managed by Interpol veterans a few months ago, the international agency will once again send its child protection experts to Kerala to impart hands-on training to a selected group of cops.
The training that is slated to be held next February will be in a three-phased manner. The cops, who are deployed in the use of software, will be given training first. Thereafter, the evidence-collection team and digital forensic experts will undergo training separately. Each group will be getting a week’s training.
The state police have already reached an understanding with Interpol which allows the former to use the latter’s most-modern software to track the transaction of child porn materials. The software is also being used to penetrate darknet sites, social media platforms and encrypted apps.
Manoj Abraham invited for Interpol meet
T’Puram: Cyberdome nodal officer ADGP Manoj Abraham has been invited by the Interpol to its conference on Crimes Against Children to be held in Lyon, France, from November 12-15. The audience in the event will be mostly front line investigators and experts dealing with online child sexual exploitation. Manoj has also been invited to the South East Asia working group meeting to be held on the sidelines of the conference.