Shame on you-  enjoying child pornography in lockdown period… 

Indore in top 20 cities with a spike in child pornography, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Raipur is also in list…

indore  .As the country is going under an extended lockdown period, an independent survey of 100 odd cities have released shocking data of a sudden spike in child pornography in India. These 100 cities include four from the Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chhattishgarh (CG) – Indore, Bhopal, and Jabalpur in MP, and Raipur in CG.

Among these, Raipur and Indore have come out as the worst-hit MPCG cities with child pornography to make a space at the 16^th and 17^th rank nationally, respectively. The survey, titled ‘Child Sexual Abuse Material In India’ (CSAMI), was conducted by India Child Protection Fund (ICPF); figures of which are based on data collected between March 24 and March 26.

According to Nivedita Ahuja, director ICPF, a total of 95% increase in watching child pornography was noticed in 100 cities, including three MP cities, during the period. “The nationwide survey of 100 cities included the MPCG cities of Raipur, Indore, Bhopal, and Jabalpur. Of these, Raipur and Indore were in the top 20 cities in the demand for child sexual abuse material. Bhopal was in the top 50, whereas Jabalpur was in top 70,” said Ahuja in a telephonic conversation .

She further stated that all cities showed an increasing demand for ‘specific’ child sexual abuse material, with users interested in content with specific age groups, sexual action and location. “This indicates that these individuals were habitual consumers for child sexual abuse material” added Ahuja.

The report’s finding further stated that “the demand for specific content, where the person was interested in specific actions, age groups and locations were the highest in Indore” as well as other cities. Similarly, it also said that Indore was included in the list of cities under the category of “individuals across the country were explicitly demanding child pornography content on various platforms”.

The survey findings were based on the data collected from an online pornography website – Pornhub, which is deemed as the largest pornography website.

NCPCR conducts independent enquiry; sends notice to Twitter Whatsapp, etc:

Priyank Kanungo, member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said that a notice has been sent to Twitter, WhatsApp, IoS and Google Play Store for “easy availability of child pornography content” on these platforms. He said that an independent enquiry by the child rights body reveled that applications of child pornography are available on IoS and Android platforms, apart from various groups on WhatsApp. “Certain links to child pornography are being shared on these WhatsApp group. The same content was also found available on Twitter and the promotion of all these is also being done on Twitter. NCPCR had thus issued a notice to all of them in this regard, seeking a reply by the April 30,” he informed.

Easy access of internet to children is becoming a threat:

As per Prashant Dubey of Aawaj, an NGO for child rights and protection, use of internet is becoming a threat for increase in child pornography during the lockdown. He told, While child pornography is easily available on the net, and usage has also increased, it has also put the children below 18 at risk to surf such content. Children need to be kept away from the net as they can easily access these websites.”

The frightening rankings:

Raipur – 16

Indore- 17

Bhopal-39

Jabalpur-63