Under growing scrutiny in India, US tech giant Meta has agreed to report child safety-related matters, including child sexual abuse cases, to Indian law enforcement agencies, according to media reports citing government sources. The cases will now be reported to the cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, a Meta spokesperson told PTI.
The move follows allegations that paid advertisements promoting AI-generated child sexual abuse material appeared on Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms in India. Government sources described the agreement as "a first step towards making the platforms safe for children," adding that "much more needs to be done." The Indian government is reportedly engaging with other online platforms to ensure they proactively identify and remove such content.
Sources told ANI and PTI that the government will take action against platforms that fail to take proactive measures to ensure online child safety. They emphasized that online safety of children is a "fundamental principle" for any social media platform operating in India and is "non-negotiable."
In July, an investigative report by the BBC found that Instagram had been running paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material in India. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) subsequently ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to such material. The ministry also demanded a detailed explanation and held several rounds of discussions with top Meta executives.
Last week, India's National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned the managing director and head of Meta India over its inquiry into alleged ads related to child sexual exploitative and abuse material. Meanwhile, a US-based nonprofit Tech Transparency Project (TTP) published a report saying it had found more than 300 ads with child sexual abuse material that ran on Facebook and Instagram this year. It said that 84 of the ads ran in India — 78 of them after the Indian government directive to Meta to remove any Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse material.
Source: www.dw.com