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Media and Child Rights Panel Discussion
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Asian College of Journalism
11:19
Hello and welcome to the panel discussion on 'Addressing Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Material (CSAM) over the years: What journalists need to know'
11:22
The panellists for today are Priyanka Thirumurthy a journalist from The News Minute; H Jayalakshmi, Deputy Commissioner, Crimes Against Women and Children, Chennai; and Siddharth Pillai, Director, Aarambh India Initiative. The discussion will be moderated by Vidya Reddy from TULIR, Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse
A panel discussion on 'Addressing Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Material' (CSAM)
11:24
Vidya Reddy starts off the discussion by saying, "Child sexual online is very rampant in the form of child pornography but that is a very wrong way to say it. Children are individual identities in their own right, they are far more exposed to the digital world. There are numerous other way they are exposed today."
11:26
11:27
Reddy correctly says that the internet is a way of great opportunities today as they have exposure but there are newer challenges. She talks about 'WeProtect', a global alliance led by the UK government. "It is very important in this regard", she says. It deals with digital technology, child sexual material let out in the internet, etc.
11:30
Reddy throws open the floor for the audience by asking about the child sexual material available online in the past month. She talks about the Ramesh Committee Report. Venkiah Naidu had commissioned the committee to look into the matter and the report is available on the Rajya Sabha website.
11:33
Reddy turns the discussion to the panellists by asking Siddharth Pillai about his opinion on the report.
11:37
Pillai shoots off the discussion by bringing foward an important point - awareness before implementation. "One thing that the report says is that it examined what each stakeholder can do. It asks to implement everything comprehensively. It asks the people in charge to take care of more features. It also suggested awareness programs", he says.
11:39
Reddy poses the next question to H Jayalakshmi. "The Tamil Nadu police has taken great steps in regard to putting offenders behind bars. As part of the police force how is the police is taking steps in enforcing the law?" she asks.
11:41
Jayalakshmi brings forward a very haunting reality when she says, "as a law enforcement agency we are facing challenges relating to sexual abuse. Only recently they received a bunch from Delhi - 600 IP addresses have at least committed the crime of watching online child sexual material. They traced the people through Facebook, phone numbers and most were using dark net."
11:43
Jayalakshmi throws light on what how these offenders get caught. "IP address has a time tag which gives away the user. They caught an ECE (an officer of higher post). He's behind bars now," she says.
11:45
11:47
Jayalakshmi talks about other shocking offenders. "Another offender was a professor who used a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to hide. He watched them daily. He made his college female students watch as well. There was a bank employee who asked for pictures from a minor during late night hours."
11:48
Jayalakshmi also throws light on another shocking case where a lady was sexually abusing her own child. They were traced through online photographs.
11:51
Jayalakshmi informs the audience that watching child porno is an offence. She says, "if you watch your IP address will be logged into their database. It takes a year for them to get to the violator."
11:54
Reddy adds to the discussion by saying that viewing is also included as a criminal offence. She asks Priyanka Thirumurthy to throw light on how journalists have to face the backlash for sensationalising child rights issues.
11:56
Thirumurthy talks about media coverage regarding Child Sexual Abuse. She gives an example of a girl from Tiruppur, a city in Tamil Nadu, who got connected with an online predator. "She ultimately ran away with him leaving her home but was raped by him who was very elder to her and by his friend too. But this incident only got two paragraphs in a leading national daily," she says.
11:58
Thirumurthy says that parents can't control their child's want for exploring and its not fair to completely put the blame on them.
12:02
12:04
Thirumurthy brings forth another appalling reality. Talking about the case of the 600 IP addresses, he says, that there has been no light on the people who got access to the explicit child pornography when the primary culprit shared the concerned material.
12:05
Thirumurthy asks Jayalakshmi," Why should there be another committee to look into this matter?"
12:07
Jayalakshmi answers, "If the person has shared to another person and that person has not seen we can't take action. Unless the person to whom content was shared has seen it we leave them alone."
12:08
12:09
Pillai shows concern that there are not enough questions asked. "Only is the Vice President involved, it's a big issue", he says.
12:10
12:11
When asked about why is digital sharing of child pornography a part of the POCSO Act when already listed under the IT Act, Reddy agrees that there are problems and the nuances need to be studied. "When the VP of India is involved along with the other MPs, it becomes even more important," she says.
12:13
12:14
Opening to the audience, Reddy asks why does the audience feel there is a shift from child pornography to child sexual abuse. She asks the same question to Thirumurthy and asks them as journalists how they are groomed about it.
12:15
In response to Reddy, Thirumurthy says that terminology is very important. She says, "When we say the word 'pornography', there is a slight hint of consent, since there are industries on this, but in case of child sexual abuse there's no scope of consent."
12:17
12:18
On the same lines Reddy says that during the discussions about the IT Act, the issue raised is that when one talks of pornography, it doesn't mean they will actually go out and do it.
12:21
12:23
Reddy sheds light on another important report. "The Hernandez report for the same is a very important research in this regard which says that viewing is important as it has helped in preventing the crime. However, such a claim needed proper evidence and research. 'Don't Offend' is offering important service in helping track down such offenders who even remotely watch it," she says.
12:24
Reddy now asks Jayalakshmi whether it is actually possible to track down every one of the offenders in a scenario where there are copies of the same video.
12:25
12:26
Jayalakshmi explains to the audience, "We arrest only those we see on reports on paper. We analyse and see the offenders history. We look into people who offend by sharing or have a larger agenda for promoting child sexual abuse online. We do a voluminous analysis only then we can catch the offender."
12:28
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