Technology Law Analysis

Indian regulatory environment & judicial proactiveness in tackling child sexual abuse content

This article was first published in www.lexology.com (April, 25, 2025).

The rise in the proliferation of child sexual exploitation and abuse material (“CSEAM”) on intermediary platforms represents a grave menace with far-reaching consequences for individuals, communities, and digital ecosystems worldwide. In 2015, an NGO named Prajwala submitted a letter to the Supreme Court expressing concern over videos depicting sexual violence involving children being circulated on the internet. On the basis of this, the Court directed that a committee be constituted to advise the Court “on the feasibility of ensuring that videos depicting rape, gang rape and child pornography are not available for circulation.” The Committee issued various recommendations pursuant to which the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules”) were issued to address the concerns relating to CSEAM.

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Authors

- Karishma Karthik and Huzefa Tavawalla

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