The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked all Internet service providers/ operators (ISPs) to make suitable arrangements to spread awareness among their subscribers about the use of parental control filters in end-user machines through messages of e-mail invoices SMS, Web sites, etc.
The step is part of the government’s plan to eliminate child pornography, rape images, videos and such sites hosted on the ISPs’ platforms and applications, sources told BusinessLine .
The move also comes after the Supreme Court, earlier this month, had asked the Centre to frame guidelines and standard operating procedures (SoPs) to eliminate such activities.
“The government is taking strict action against those involved in fake news and sharing pornographic content, especially images of child sexual abuse hosted on any site. The government is putting all the mechanisms in place and they will be communicated to all the stakeholders,” a senior official said.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had last year issued an order under the IT Act, 2000, to the Internet Service Provider Association of India (ISPAI) and DoT to disable/ remove access to child pornography sites by adopting Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) on or before July, 2017 to prevent the distribution and transmission of online child sexual abuse material/child pornographic material into India.
In response, the major ISPs are submitting their compliance with respect to blocking online child sexual abuse material based on the IWF list, sources said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has also launched a portal for the public to report complaints of child pornography and sexually abusive explicit content.