SC gives Centre last chance on child abuse material curb

The Supreme Court on Thursday termed Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM) an "extremely serious" issue and directed the Centre to focus on preventing such content from appearing online. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran gave the Centre one last opportunity to file an affidavit explaining measures to implement its September 23, 2024 judgment, which obligates social media intermediaries to report and remove CSEAM under the Pocso Act.

The court was hearing a plea by Just Rights for Children Alliance (JRCA) founder Bhuwan Ribhu, who said nearly two years had passed with little enforcement. The Centre told the court it is finalising a standard operating procedure (SOP) and will file a response. Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj informed the bench that only Google and Meta have agreed to report CSEAM directly to the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C). The next hearing is on October 15.