Syllabus: GS3/ Cyber Security
Context
- Meta, the parent firm of Instagram and Facebook, has agreed to share child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India with the cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
About
- The move comes amid scrutiny of Meta after reports that CSAM-related content was being served through advertisements on social media platforms.
- Earlier, Indian agencies accessed such reports through a 2019 MoU between the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM)
- Child Sexual Abuse Materials (also known as “child pornography”) denotes any visual representation of sexually explicit conduct involving individuals under 18 years old.
- CSAM is a recorded copy of the abuse, be it sexual, physical, mental, social, or emotional, made available over the vast internet.
How Social Media Is Making Children More Vulnerable?
- Online grooming: Offenders will utilise social media to gain the trust of youngsters for the purpose of sexual exploitation or abuse
- AI-generated abuse material is an emerging concern, as it complicates detection and investigation.
- Dark patterns and addictive design encourage excessive engagement and expose children to manipulative commercial or harmful content.
- Fraud and impersonation exploit children’s limited digital awareness through fake profiles, phishing, gaming scams and malicious links.
Measures to Curb online child abuse
- Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act): Sections 13–15 deal with using children for pornographic purposes and the storage/possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
- Information Technology Act, 2000: Section 67B criminalises publishing, transmitting, browsing, downloading, advertising or distributing electronic material depicting children in sexually explicit acts.
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: Provides provisions against sexual exploitation of trafficked children, complementing POCSO and the IT Act.
- SAHYOG Portal: Enables automated, centralized intimations to intermediaries for removal of unlawful content by authorised agencies across India.
Other Emerging Threats from Social Media
- Misinformation may disseminate inaccurate or purposely misleading information quickly and alter people’s knowledge and choices.
- Deepfakes and content created by AI make for impersonation, fraud, reputational damage and manipulation of public discourse.
- Social-media platforms are rapidly being used for cybercrime and financial fraud, including phishing, identity theft, investment schemes, and impersonation.
- Echo chambers and polarisation can reinforce current opinions, decrease exposure to a range of views and increase social divides.
- Cyberbullying can weaken the safety, dignity and freedom of speech of individuals.
- Radicalisation and Malicious Propaganda can use social-media networks for recruitment, mobilisation and spreading extremist narratives.
Way Ahead
- As social media increasingly shapes public and private life, digital safety must become an integral component of good governance, balancing innovation with privacy, security and fundamental rights.
- India’s approach should evolve from content moderation to safety-by-design, ensuring that platforms incorporate safeguards against emerging digital harms from the very stage of technological design.
Source: TH
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