Page 2 - Child Sexual Abuse

Why is author and Nobel laureate Alice Munro in the news? Explained

Alice Munro, celebrated for her literary prowess and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, is often regarded as one of the greatest short-story writers. Read on to find out why she is in the

Victims' false depiction as minor under POCSO abuse of process of court: HC

The Allahabad High Court has directed that in cases of sexual offences against children, police must ensure that a medical report determining the victim's age is drawn up at the outset and is submitted to the court without any delay. The court said discrepancies in the victim's age in POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases can substantially affect the rights and liberties of the accused. It granted bail to Ghaziabad-resident Aman, alias Vansh, who was lodged in the jail since December 5, 2023 last year in a POCSO case. "False depiction of a victim as a minor in POCSO Act cases is an abuse of the process of court." Justice Ajay Bhanot said on Tuesday. He observed that the victim's age as mentioned in the prosecution case is often found to be at variance with the age determined by the expert medical boards in a large number of cases. "At times there are multiple contradictions in age-related documents available with the prosecution. Numerous cases of false implica

Meta, TikTok, X CEOs face questions on child safety at US Senate hearing

Senator Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday questioned what she said was inaction in the tech industry, comparing it to the response shown when a panel blew out of a Boeing plane earlier this month

Study shows AI image-generators being trained on explicit pics of children

Hidden inside the foundation of popular artificial intelligence image-generators are thousands of images of child sexual abuse, according to a new report that urges companies to take action to address a harmful flaw in the technology they built. Those same images have made it easier for AI systems to produce realistic and explicit imagery of fake children as well as transform social media photos of fully clothed real teens into nudes, much to the alarm of schools and law enforcement around the world. Until recently, anti-abuse researchers thought the only way that some unchecked AI tools produced abusive imagery of children was by essentially combining what they've learned from two separate buckets of online images - adult pornography and benign photos of kids. But the Stanford Internet Observatory found more than 3,200 images of suspected child sexual abuse in the giant AI database LAION, an index of online images and captions that's been used to train leading AI image-makers such

Notice issued to social media firms to remove child sex abuse material: MoS

The government has issued notice to social media platforms including Telegram, YouTube and X to remove all child sex abuse material and groups circulating such content, Parliament was informed on Friday. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to Rajya Sabha said that the social media platforms have been informed that existing rules cast obligations on the intermediaries, including social media firms, to observe due diligence and if they fail to observe such due diligence, they shall no longer be exempt from their liability under law for third-party information hosted by them. "The Government has issued notice to various social media intermediaries including Telegram, YouTube and X, to remove or disable access to all such CSAM and groups circulating such material which is violative of rule 3(1)(d) and rule 4(4) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021)," Chandrasekhar ...

No CSAM content on platform, govt didn't share any evidence: YouTube

The company has submitted its formal response to the government on the issue

We are taking strong measures to crackdown CSAM: Rajeev Chandrashekhar

The Minister of State called out global tech giants for 'distorting' fair competition and free consumer choice in the internet world and said that it is an area of concern for the government

Govt to YouTube, X: Remove child abuse content or lose safe harbour

As reported earlier, law enforcement agencies have recorded an uptick in cybercrime against children with an increasing use of artificial intelligence

Remove child sexual abuse material: Centre warns X, YouTube, Telegram

The government has issued notices to social media platforms X, formerly Twitter, YouTube and Telegram to remove child sexual abuse material from their platforms in India, an official statement said on Friday. Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajiv Chandrasekhar said if social media intermediaries do not act swiftly, their 'safe harbour' under section 79 of the IT Act would be withdrawn, implying that the platforms can be directly prosecuted under the applicable laws and rules even though the content may have not been uploaded by them. "Ministry of Electronics and IT has issued notices to social media intermediaries X, Youtube and Teleram, warning them to remove Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) from their platforms on the Indian internet. "The notices served to these platforms emphasize the importance of prompt and permanent removal or disabling of access to any CSAM on their platforms," the statement said. The notices also call for the implementation of proactive measure

Instagram main platform for child sex abuse networks: WSJ report

A simple search for sexually explicit keywords specificaly referencing children leads to accounts that use these terms to advertise content showing sexual abuse of minors

Instagram algorithms promoting pedophiles, Musk says 'extremely concerning'

"The Meta unit's systems for fostering communities have guided users to child-sex content" while the social networking platform has claimed it is "improving internal controls"

Seers in Ayodhya seek amendment to POCSO Act on grounds of gross misuse

Seers in Ayodhya are now demanding an amendment to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on the grounds that it was being widely misused

Tech giants doing too little on abuse content, says Australian govt report

Apple and Microsoft don't pro-actively detect child abuse material stored on their iCloud and OneDrive services, despite the wide availability of identifying technology, the report found

Cyber aggression, sexual abuse WHO's key focus to keep children safe online

The report titled "What works to prevent online violence against children," showcases strategies and best practices to better protect children

'Extremely concerning': Elon Musk on child porn proliferation on Twitter

Elon Musk on Thursday expressed grave concerns over reports about the presence of tweets soliciting child pornography on Twitter, as India takes on the micro-blogging platform over similar concerns

CBI raids 59 locations in crackdown against child sex abuse material

The CBI on Saturday carried out searches at 59 locations across 21 states and a Union Territory in an internationally coordinated law-enforcement crackdown on online circulation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), with officials here saying more than 50 suspects in the country are under the scanner. The raids, part of Operation 'Megha Chakra', were launched after the agency registered two cases under relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act based on inputs from the Crime Against Children (CAC) unit of Interpol, based in Singapore, which had received it from the New Zealand Police, the officials said. The agency is questioning suspects about illicit material found on their electronic devices so as to identify the victims and the abusers, a CBI spokesperson said. "It was alleged that a number of Indian citizens were involved in circulation/downloading/transmission of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) using cloud-based storage," the CBI spokesperson said after the ...

India becomes 68th country to join Interpol's child sexual abuse database

India on Friday joined the Interpol's international child sexual exploitation (ICSE) database which will allow it to draw links between victims, abusers and crime scene using audio-visual data. The CBI, which is India's nodal agency for Interpol matters, joined the database making India the 68th country to connect to it, according to a statement from the Interpol. "The ICSE database uses video & image comparison to analyse child sexual abuse material and make connections between victims, abusers and places," it said. An intelligence and investigative tool, the database allows specialized investigators to share information on cases of child sexual abuse. Through the image and video comparison software, the investigators can nail down the criminals by identifying victims and places of crime. "The database avoids duplication of effort and saves precious time by letting investigators know whether a series of images has already been discovered or identified in another country, or ...

European Union warns tech companies of incoming child sex abuse rules

The legislation would require tech companies to report child sexual abuse material to authorities

Trial in 99% of POCSO cases was still pending by Dec 2020: Study

The data showed the highest number of rape victims were in the age group of 12 to 18 years

India reported over 24L online child abuse cases in 2017-20: Interpol

The figures had prompted the CBI to start a massive operation against the alleged peddlers of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India