KOCHI: In a major drive to counter rising circulation of child pornographic content, mobile phone users in Kerala have started to receive SMS from Union government warning them of punishment for circulating and possessing child porn content.The messages from DotGoI warns against online circulation/possession of child pornography or rape/gang rape-related content and calls for reporting complaint with www.cybercrime.gov.in of National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) under Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA).
The cyber space in Kerala has been under scanner of both Central and state cyber crime monitoring agencies after it was found that a large number of internet users were downloading and sharing videos of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).In Kerala, Crime Branch Inspector General S Sreejith has been appointed nodal officer of the NCCRP which has been exclusively set up for the convenience of those who want to report cyber crimes online specifically crimes committed against women and children.
Cyber Crime police station SHO Shyamlal said the state has state-of-the-art tools to monitor cyber space and social media for CSAM. “It was our monitoring that resulted in the arrest of 41 people from different parts of the state for online circulation and possession of CSAM,” he said, adding that Cyber Crime Police Station coordinates with NCCRP in probing cybercrime complaints.
As per a recent data submitted in Parliament, a total of 13,244 complaints regarding content related to child porno, rape and gang rape were received at National Cybercrime Reporting Portal from March 1 to September 18. “As the majority of the sites offering CSAM are operating from abroad, the cyber wing of Union Government has been taking steps to block the URLs and monitor those IP addresses that are downloading CSAM,” said Shyamlal.Cyber experts say many internet users use Torrent to download files without knowing the fact that Torrent is a peer-to-peer network wherein downloader also acts as an uploader or seeder.