The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the Central government a last opportunity to explain the steps taken to curb the circulation of child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) on social media platforms.
The Division Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran issued the directions while hearing a petition by the Just Rights for Children Alliance. The plea calls for criminal action against social media companies that do not report child sexual abuse material to authorities in India.
The Court noted that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Law and Justice had not yet filed the response sought by it on August 14. Pointing out that no response had been filed despite the serious nature of the case, the Bench granted the two ministries one last chance to submit their report.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Union government, told the Court that the government was taking the matter seriously and had already issued notice and initiated proceedings against one of the companies.
The Bench directed the government to place on record the steps taken to implement the Supreme Court’s 2024 judgment and to curb the circulation of CSEAM. It also sought details of the precautions proposed to prevent lapses by social media intermediaries.
The current proceedings follow a September 2024 Supreme Court ruling (Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish) that focused on online child sexual abuse material. In that judgment, the Court made it mandatory for online platforms to report CSEAM to local police and juvenile justice authorities as required by the POCSO Act.
The present plea alleges that subsequent developments show that social media intermediaries have not been uniformly complying with those directions. It seeks a uniform standard operating procedure (SOP) for detecting and reporting CSEAM, preserving electronic evidence and coordinating with law-enforcement authorities.
The plea was filed against the backdrop of a BBC report alleging that paid advertisements promoting CSEAM appeared on Instagram and directed users to Telegram channels where such material was allegedly offered for money.
According to the plea, Meta told the BBC that it reports apparent child sexual exploitation to the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The petitioners, however, pointed out that the report did not indicate whether such instances were also reported to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or local police in India, as required under the POCSO framework and the Supreme Court’s 2024 directions.
The matter will next be heard on October 15.
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