Law & Justice

Delhi Government Drafting Bill to Stop Online Child Pornography and Revenge Porn

By Dhananjay Mahapatra

The Government informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it is drafting a bill to prevent the circulation of child pornography and offensive sexual videos on social media. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that deliberations are underway for legislative intervention to curb the spread of sexual content, child porn, and morphed videos. Mehta said he does not oppose two public interest litigations—one by Uday Mahurkar and another by the NGO ‘Prajwala’—which seek a robust mechanism to stop the circulation of child pornography, sexual assault videos, uploads of consensual adult sexual acts by jilted lovers, and morphed videos. When a counsel noted that currently only the aggrieved person, often a woman, can file a police complaint against the uploader, the SG said the intermediary should be directed to remove such content immediately and must also file a police complaint against the handle or digital device used for the upload. The bench agreed that strong legislative action is needed to address the problem and gave the government four weeks to report the outcome of its deliberations.