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United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report titled “Role of Social Media in facilitating Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse” | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report titled “Role of Social Media in facilitating Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse”

Posted 26 Feb 2024

Updated 27 Mar 2024

2 min read

  • Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) involve the use of information and communication technology as a means to sexually abuse and/or sexually exploit children.
    • As per National Human Rights Commission, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) has increased by 250 to 300 percent on social media in India.

 

  • How Social Media facilitates OCSEA?
    • Online predators: Social media platform could be used by predators to entice and coerce children into posting graphic content.
    • Access to Inappropriate Content: Children may purposefully or unintentionally gain access to sexually explicit material, easily accessible on social networking sites.

 

  • Impact of Child Sexual Abuse Material on Child 
    • Impair brain development, and cause psychological stress like Anxiety, Post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.
    • Potential to normalize or desensitize children to inappropriate behavior.
    • Leads to communicable and non-communicable diseases like sexually transmitted infections including HIV, cardiovascular disease, and unintended pregnancies etc.

 

  • Recommendations from report
    • Make it mandatory for online platforms to have clear, accessible, child-friendly mechanisms for children to report concerns.
    • Social media platforms and service providers should publish periodic transparency reports.

 

Steps taken to curb OCSEA

  • Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000: Sections 66E, 67, 67A, and 67B of IT Act impose stringent penalties and fines for online transmission of obscene or pornographic content including CSAM.
  • IT Rules 2021 curb circulation of CSAM on social media platforms.
  • Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/Investigation Unit set up by CBI.
  • YouTube uses an automatic tool called Child Sexual Abuse Imagery Match to weed out CSAM.
  • Tags :
  • UNICEF
  • Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
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