SC asks govt, others to mull ways to check sex offence videos

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today directed the Union government, internet majors and other intermediaries to sit together to mull over technical ways to block and check sharing of videos of sexual offences on social networking sites.

A bench of Justices M B Lokur and U U Lalit directed Google India, Microsoft India, Yahoo India, Facebook and other internet intermediaries to submit the names of their representatives who would take part in the meeting in order to check cyber crimes.

The top court asked them to finalise the names and inform about their decision by March 22, the next date of hearing.

During the hearing, officials from the cyber security, who function under thhe CBI, told the bench that internet was a “wild highway” and blocking objectionable content at the source was a technical challenge for which clear guidelines needed to be passed to stop circulation of such material.

They told the top court that 50 countries have set up hotlines to stop child abuse in their jurisdiction but India was yet to start such a service.

The officials said they were taking assistance of the INTERPOL to stop child pornography, and whenever any complaint is received, the internet service providers are asked to block the objectionable content.

The Centre had earlier informed the court that it would set up a specialised agency mechanism to block and curb sharing of sexual offence videos on social networking platforms in order to check cyber crimes.

The court was hearing a letter sent to then Chief Justice of India H L Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, along with two rape videos in a pen drive.

It had taken suo motu cognizance of the letter on the posting of these videos on WhatsApp and asked CBI to launch a probe forthwith to apprehent the culprits.