We all have heard of DPS MMS Case where the pornographic video of a girl child was prepared by certain people and distributed through MMS. Recently in Bois Locker Room Case we saw how vulgar comments were made about girls and also nude pictures were being shared. Quite disturbing…right! Most of the people read about these incidents and move to the next news item; believing that ‘such incidents’ happen to other children. The incidents listed above are not random occurrences, but represent the shocking reality of the country. Online Sexual harassment in India is growing like an epidemic. An increasing number of shocking incidents around the world concerning online sexual abuse have made the subjects and the State alike to consider deeply over these topics as the cases involving the production and distribution of child pornography are increasing. New innovations in technology have facilitated such crimes. It is no longer unusual or difficult to access different forms of child pornography which is being circulated in the form of print such as posters, photographs, magazines and in the form of electronic media like videos, multimedia messaging service (MMS), websites, social media, and internet and so on. These materials are used to blackmail the children to engage into perpetual sexual activities with the maker of such videos. The abundance of materials in different forms has created huge problem in the regulation of pornography. Cases like online harassment committed by strangers are also seen which some considered a potential means for pedophiles to stalk and seduce children and which others denounced for making child pornography widely available.

Several legislations have been made by our government to make special provisions regarding children and to reduce child pornography. Some of them are Indian Penal Code, Communication Decency Act, Information technology Act, Data Protection Act, Criminal Procedure Code, and the POCSO Act. But the biggest problem with the enforcement of child pornography laws is the problem of identification of accused, victims and the perpetrators of crime. Huge amount of pornographic material is available on numerous porn websites on internet. There is nobody to complain about the production, distribution and circulation of pornography on internet. The perpetrator can be situated anywhere in the world. The most difficult thing is to identify the culprit. As the net can be accessed from any part of the globe, the field is wide open foe hackers and pedophiles.

The problem of jurisdiction is also an important problem in the world of laws dealing with child pornography especially when the platform is internet. India is a signatory to various international laws on the protection of children, but implementation of these laws often lack. Under section 75 of Information Technology Act, 2000, any person or persons irrespective of their nationalities who commit offence under the Information Technology Act outside India provided the act or conduct constituting the offence or contravention involves computer, computer systems, or computer networks located in India, can be prosecuted by Indian Courts. This provision attempts to resolve the problem of jurisdiction related to internet pornography but this provision does not serve any useful purpose in the case where India does not extratradition treaty with the citizen of a country whose citizen has to be prosecuted under this Act. Due to the presence of numerous laws dealing with pornography, confusion arises in relation with their applicability.

There is a huge challenge in controlling this menace due to various reasons like the way internet is structured, lack of regulations, differences in legislations and so on. A careful assessment of the harms of child pornography needs to be undertaken by the government to provide a stronger legislation.

Supreme Court Justice V.S. Sirpurkar had emphasized on the point of creating special courts for cases related to cyber crime which would be decorated by trained judges in cyber law. These trained judges would be better able to appreciate the evidence. These special courts will also serve as a tool for easy enforcement of internet pornography laws. The Bombay High Court Committee on Protecting Children from Online Pornography, suggested following recommendations in their Report on Protecting Children from Online Pornography:

1. Blocking of sites;
2. Preventing minors from accessing unsuitable material from Cyber Cafes;
3. Preventing the publication or propagation of pornography from Cyber Cafes.

It is important to develop an understanding of the problems so that proper laws are made and implemented so as to curb child pornography. Awareness should be created among the children to avoid crimes like child pornography. Such crimes must be stopped so as to protect the child from entering and being trapped in the world of voyeurism.


I'm a student of B.A. LL.B. from Yashwantrao Chavan Law College, Pune. As a law student, I'm interested in different areas of law such as Constitutional law, Human Rights law and Family law. I'm also interested in research and have participated in various national and international seminars. My other interests include reading and writing poetry.