1. How safe are our children over the Internet
How safe are our children over the Internet?-Cyber safety law and policy in India
Lina Acca Mathew
Assistant Professor of Law
Govt. Law College, Ernakulam

2. Ministry of Women and Child Development: Study on Child Abuse: India 2007
86.7% of boys in Kerala are being exposed to dirty pictures among the states of India, followed by boys in Goa (80.43%)
Among children being photographed in the nude, children in the category of in Kerala reported the second highest of 51.61%, topped by Mizoram (57.14%)
On a total, 48.95% of boys in Kerala face various forms of sexual abuse, in comparison with 40.25% of girls in Kerala. This dispels the popular myth that it is only girls who are vulnerable to sexual abuse.

3. Kerala
Most cyber crimes being reported are regarding Facebook and other social networking sites - defamatory/pornographic material posted on fake ids
Various instances of sexual abuse of school girls being filmed on mobile camera have been reported
Frequent chances of school children to visit pornographic sites at school and home.
The Hindu, KOCHI, June 26, 2013
Kerala topped the list of under-18 teens arrested for violating the Information Technology (IT) Act in NCRB report shows that 15 persons below 18 years of age were arrested from Kerala, followed by 13 from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and 9 from Maharashtra.
Kerala has the highest percentage of boys being exposed to pornographic material.

4. The Hindu, KOCHI, June 26, 2013
NCRB (2012 statistics) for Kerala State regarding arrests for cyber crimes:
15 persons below age of 18
81 persons aged years
44 persons aged years
11 persons years
Out of the cases registered under IT Act in the Kerala State, 147 were for publishing or electronic transmission of obscene material, which is the highest among other States. Maharashtra came second with 76 cases. As many as 59 case were registered from the State for loss or damage to computer resource or utility, 16 cases for breach of confidentiality and privacy and 39 cases for hacking.

5. The Hindu, KOCHI, June 26, 2013
The NCRB (2012) figures also gave an interesting insight into the changing mind-set of Kerala State:
in 96 cases registered under cyber crimes, the motive was harassment of women
48 cases were for committing fraud or illegal gain
44 cases were for money
19 for causing disrepute to others.
out of 312 persons arrested as suspects in cases for cyber crimes, 73 were neighbours, friends or relatives.

6. Very recently, a senior BJP leader KN Govinacharya, sought to protect the online safety of children by filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against Facebook and Google, which runs the social networking site Orkut. The Bench took seriously the allegation that minors are entering into social media networking sites and are then being lured into illegal activities, either knowingly or unknowingly.
The counsel for Facebook submitted that the site operated under the US law Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as per which a child below 13 is not allowed to open an account. When the court asked Facebook why its site does not carry a disclaimer stating that children under the age of 13 were not permitted to open accounts, the reply was that the Indian Information Technology Act and Rules do not make such a requirement necessary.
As reported by the Deccan Chronicle on August 2, 2013, the New Delhi High Court has given Facebook and Google one month to submit suggestions on how minors can be protected online in India.

7. Risks faced by children over the internet
Privacy Intrusion- Violation of body privacy, Online harassment/cyber bullying; Cyber stalking
Exposure to sites offering illegal information
Exposure to online fraudsters
Exposure to online sexual predators--- soliciting children for sexual favours
Children viewing adult/child pornography
Production of child pornography

8. Online/Mobile harassment/Cyber bullying and Cyber stalking
Harassment through electronic means by sending grossly offensive or menacing information, and persistently causing annoyance, injury, insult etc is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine- Section 66A, Information Technology Act

9. Violation of Body Privacy
Capturing the image of a private body part of a child is punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine not exceeding two lakh rupees, or both- Section 66E, Information Technology Act
nation –(e)“under circumstances violating privacy” means circumstances in which a person can have a reasonable expectation that–
(i) he or she could disrobe in privacy, without being concerned that an image of his private area was being captured; or
(ii) any part of his or her private area would not be visible to the public, regardless of whether that person is in a public or private place.

10. Sending offensive messages through a computer resource or communications device (Section 66A, ITA)
any  information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character or
any  information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device, or
any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages
Punishment: imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

11. Section 67: Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form
Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.

12. Section 67A: Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form
Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act or conduct shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.

13. INDIA –Section 67B Information Technology Act 2000
‘Whoever,- (a) publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted material in any electronic form which depicts children engaged in sexually explicit act or conduct; or
(b) creates text or digital images, collects, seeks, browses, downloads, advertises, promotes, exchanges or distributes material in any electronic form depicting children in obscene or indecent or sexually explicit manner; or
(c) cultivates, entices or induces children to online relationship with one or more children for and on sexually explicit act or in a manner that may offend a reasonable adult on the computer resource; or
(d) facilitates abusing children online; or
(e) records in any electronic form own abuse or that of others pertaining to sexually explicit act with children,

14. Information Technology Act-Section 67B
Punishment
1st conviction– 5 years+ Rs. 10 lakh fine
2nd conviction- 7 years +Rs.10 lakh fine
This Section covers --
using children for child pornography
Perpetrator of abuse may be adult or child
predating on children for online grooming, both by adult and child offenders

15. Online access to children for viewing sexually explicit content and illegal material
Viewing of pornography other than child pornography is not an offence. So any person including a child merely viewing adult pornography is not prohibited in India so long as there is no publication/transmission of such obscene material. Illegal information- how to make a bomb/ how to make counterfeit money/terrorist organisations Remedial measure: Client-side filtering systems (for parents, teachers, librarians), Rating systems rates materials according to the degree of sex, violence, nudity and bad language depicted., Hotlines like the Internet Watch Foundation in Britain , Cert-In. (blocks illegal websites in India), Age-Restrictions- IT Rules 2011-cyber café, Social Networking sites limit minimum age of account holders to 18 years.

16. US legislations for regulating access of children to inappropriate content
Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000(CIPA), regulate s computer access to adult –oriented websites in public schools and libraries. The CIPA provides that in order for public schools and libraries to receive federal funds and grant, they must certify that they have installed filtering technology that prevents adults and minors from accessing material deemed harmful in school premises.
Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to Tend Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act,2003 regulates the use of Misleading Domain Names which deceive a person into viewing obscene material or a minor into viewing material harmful to minors. A person who knowingly uses such a misleading domain name can be fined and/or imprisoned for a period upto 4 years if the viewer is a minor.

17. Online Sexual Grooming
Online sexual enticement of child {through sexting; distributing or showing sexually –explicit images (of adults or children) to a child }
For the purpose of Meeting or Intending to meet a child for further offline abuse
Remedial measure: linking with Virtual Global Taskforce

18. Virtual Global Taskforce
Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT)--effective, international partnership of law enforcement agencies that helps to protect children from online child abuse.
The current VGT members include
1)Australian Hi-Tech Crime Centre / Australian Federal Police (AFP)
(2)Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(3)United Kingdom: Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOPC)
(4)U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
(5)Interpol
(6) the Korean National Police and
(7) the Indonesian National Police.
It aims to Empower children--by raising AWARENESS of the risks that children and young people face online and by providing TOOLS to help manage those risks. The Taskforce also aims to prevent and deter pedophiles from committing online child abuse, for example, by working with online providers to make it more difficult for pedophiles to misuse the Internet.

19. Other remedial measures in India
Information Technology Amendment Act Section 67B (d)– facilitates abusing children online- punishment-imprisonment of either description up to 5 years+ Rs. 10 lakh fine
Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, Section 5 –procuring, inducing or taking a person for the sake of prostitution- punishment- rigorous imprisonment for a term of not less than seven years but may extend to life.
POCSOA, Section 11- sexual harassment, enticement of child, constantly watching and contacting child through electronic and other means –punishment-Section 12- punishment if imprisonment of either description up to 3 years and fine

20. Child Pornography India- 2004- Delhi Public School case
Balaji case- 2007
Kerala- Ambalappuzha case 2008-where three girls committed suicide because of blackmail for sexual favours by boys studying in the same school who had allegedly raped them at a camp and had captured the scenes on a mobile camera
Santhosh Madhavan case Many pornographic CDs were recovered from his apartment, which contained scenes of him sexually abusing minor girls – convicted under Sections 376 (rape) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC, of raping two minor girls, and sentenced him to 16 years rigorous imprisonment, that is, eight years rigorous imprisonment each in the two cases

21. Using a child for Pornographic Purposes- Sections 13 &14, POCSOA,2012
Whoever, uses a child in any form of media (including programme or advertisement telecast by television channels or internet or any other electronic form or printed form, whether or not such programme or advertisement is intended for personal use or for distribution), for the purposes of sexual gratification, which includes—
Representation of the sexual organs of a child-- Usage or a child engaged in real or simulated sexual acts (with or without penetration)--The indecent or obscene representation of a child

22. Imprisonment up to 5 years +fine
Subsequent conviction up to 7 years
+ penetrative sexual assault--Not less than ten years to life imprisonment + fine
+aggravated PSA- Imprisonment for life +fine
+sexual assault—not less than 6 years imprisonment up to 8 years + fine
+aggravated sexual assault– not less than 8 years imprisonment up to 10 years + fine

23. Section 67B of Information Technology Act- punishes child pornography- imprisonment of either description up to 5 years+ Rs. 10 lakh fine
Section 28, POCSOA, the Special Court shall have jurisdiction to try cases relating to children under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act

24. The way forward
Sensitization of social- service workers, healthcare practitioners, education imparters, law enforcement officers, photo developers, IT professionals, ISPs, credit card companies and banks about the need to collect statistics as well as report suspected internet child abuse including child pornography.
Contact cyber cell of concerned district to report cyber crimes involving children.