Government announces measures against online child abuse

To curb the menace of online child sexual abuse, the government on Friday announced immediate measures that will function till a centralised mechanism is put to monitor the exploitation.

According to an official statement, these measures have been taken on the basis of consultations of an inter-ministerial committee that includes Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Ministry of Law, Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Telecom.

The inter-ministerial committee was constituted on request of the WCD Ministry, subsequent to its last year's decision of establishing a national alliance against online exploitation.

MEITY has issued the measures under Section 79(2)(c) of the Information Technology Act 2000, to curb online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the statement said.

It informed that by July 31, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) shall be required to adopt and implement the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) that maintains a dynamic global list of websites and URLs containing CSAM will be blocked or removed.

The order of MEITY also reiterates that the ISPs will continue to observe due diligence requirements described under the IT Act for removing and disabling any content, which is in violation of the extant rules and regulations.

--IANS

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