“Information for parents: during this lockdown, India topped in the world in loading child sexual abuse material on the net. It’s not a guess anymore as to where we are heading to,” read a recent WhatsApp message sent by child rights activist Archana Agnihotri to all her contacts. Agnihotri is the director of Delhi-based NGO Samadhan Abhiyan.
The nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak has exposed a dark underbelly of society – millions of paedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts have increased their activities online, making the internet even more unsafe for children.
A recent report released by NGO India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) revealed that the consumption of child pornography content in India spiked by 95% during lockdown. There has also been a steep increase in demand for searches like “child porn”, “sexy child” and “teen sex videos”, along with an increase in traffic on Pornhub from India between March 24 and 26, as compared to before the lockdown.
“A vast majority of individuals were interested in generic CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) involving ‘school girls sex’ and the demand for content with specific age groups, sexual actions and locations was growing,” revealed the report, that studied trends from 100 Indian cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Indore.
A number of NGOs came together at CP, New Delhi, to rally against rising cases of child sexual abuse.
Child porn network: the modus operandi
Last year in October, the Crime Bureau Investigation (CBI) along with German Police was moving ahead with a plan to blow the lid off a global paedophilia racket. That month, they nabbed seven Indians from different locations who were active members of an ‘international racket’ of child pornography operating on as many as 29 WhatsApp groups. The accused hail from Chennai’s Selaipur and Ibrahim Sahib, Amar Nagar in Faridabad, Pasonda in Sahibabad, Bhattacharya Paralane in Howrah, Chomu district in Rajasthan and Delhi’s Nirankari Colony.
Just two days later on October 13, some 2,646 km away from the capital, Kerala police, under the banner of ‘Operation P-Hunt 3’, arrested 12 people, including a minor, for uploading and downloading videos and photographs related to child pornography.
Both cases had two things in common. One, they operated on wide-scale social media platforms with strong end-to-end encryption – like WhatsApp and Telegram. Two, the crimes transcended national boundaries.
“The advancement in technology has worked both ways,” says Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, who is an internationally-acclaimed child rights activist. On one hand, with the help of technology, many cases are being reported. “However, with it, the menace of child pornography is growing manifold, making the industry worth more than $8 billion alone,” he stresses.
After multiple demands made by Satyarthi and other activists, the Centre blocked many websites. But because of the dark web and other getaways, the move wasn’t successful. “A check has to be on the source” – so that no such content is uploaded on the web in real-time.
Also read: Putting a Ban on Porn Won’t Reduce Cases of Sexual Violence
In this regard, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to remove and block websites containing extreme CSAM based on Interpol’s “Worst-of-list”. However, new websites keep emerging every day.
Jyoti Rathi, who is a member of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), gives insight into how these groups/websites operate. “These groups have only one mandate: one has to share a minimum of two to three child porn every day to stay a member of the group,” she tells.
The problem is worsened by the fact that the circle of child pornography is interlinked with trafficking and prostitution. Victims are often stigmatised. Once a video of a child, especially a girl child, is out, she becomes socially unacceptable and falls into an inescapable trap.
Satyarthi adds: “Children who are lured are often trafficked and eventually sold for production of pornographic content.”
Though child pornography is rising at an unprecedented rate, Rathi tells that not many cases are reported. In India, sexual abuse and pornography is a taboo subject and many people do not report cases.
Long-lasting psychological impacts
Participants at ‘Run for Beti’, an awareness run.
The abuse can go on to impact the lives of children at physiological, psychological and social levels, and on sexual behavioural patterns.
Nirali Bhatiya, a cyber-psychologist based in Mumbai speaks of the direct impact such incidents can have on children and how they often become depressed, scared, guilty and embarrassed.
“‘The child is not what she used to be,’ said the mother of a child who was a vcitim,” Nirali said. Children who once face cyberbullying and, extortion find it very difficult to use any social media platform.
The psychological impact can include unusual or unexplained fear of people or places, nightmares, eating and sleeping disturbances, lack of trust in self and others, regressive behaviours and even suicide. The social impact can include sudden withdrawal, increased hostility, aggression and drastic changes in academic performance.
The crusaders of abuse
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has developed a mobile application called ‘Meri Awaaz’ for DCPCR. The children-friendly application allows users to directly report abuse to the commission and keep their identity anonymous.
A number of other non-governmental organisations like Sakshi Foundation, Samadhan Abhiyan and Save The Child are working on daily interactive programmes with children.
This move comes in light of the fact that the commission does not receive too many complains of child pornography – a direct result of the lack of awareness concerning the ‘whom to’ and ‘how to’ report questions that arise.
All photos by: Bhumika Saraswati and Aaqib Fayaz