India's lockdown was announced as a way to break the chain of coronavirus widespread, which continues to claim lives and infect people around the world. As India battles the deadly virus, there are some states that are extending the lockdown since the coronavirus is proving difficult to contain. Even as the coronavirus cases rise in the country are rising, there's a shocking dark side to this lockdown tale.
Due to the lockdown, popular porn site PornHub was unblocked and the site offered premium access for free so people spend more time indoors. But a shocking twist has been revealed as pedophiles are on the lookout for child pornography.
An alarming rise in the demand for child pornography material (also referred to as 'Child Sexual Abuse Material') has been seen ever since the COVID-19 induced lockdown was enforced, the India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) claimed on Monday, IANS reported.
The online data monitoring websites are showing an increase in demand for searches like 'child porn', 'sexy child' and 'teen sex videos'. Data from Pornhub also suggests that traffic from India has increased by 95 percent between 24th and 26th March 2020, as compared to their average traffic, pre-coronavirus, the ICPF claimed.
New Delhi ranks among top cities
According to the stats, New Delhi was among the cities with the high demand for child porn, which increases the risk to children during the coronavirus lockdown
The ICPF has released a report titled 'Child Sexual Abuse Material in India', research of child pornography demand in 100 cities in India like New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Indore. The overall demand for child pornography was an average of 5 million per month in 100 cities on the public web during December 2019, which has now spiked, the report added.
A shocking 200 percent increase in demand for violent content which shows children "choking", "bleeding" and 'tortured" was witnessed.
"Metro cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, besides many Tier II and capital cities, which are seeing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, have been red-flagged by the December study as hotspots for child pornography," the ICPF said. "ICPF has warned that this indicates millions of pedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts have migrated online, making the Internet extremely unsafe for children. Without stringent action, this could result in a drastic rise in sexual crimes against children," it added.
Need stringent force to combat this
The report cites Europol, United Nations, ECPAT reports which say that children are now more prone to online grooming and sexual coercion, and also refers to recent news of the Childline India Helpline reporting more than 92,000 SOS calls asking for protection from abuse and violence in 11 days of the lockdown.
"This presents a chilling reality of the extreme threat faced by India's children during this period of lockdown. Demand for child sexual abuse material indicates children are more vulnerable to sexual predators," ICPF said.
The ICPF has requested for enhanced security in cities where there's high demand for child pornography material. Additionally, stringent laws for ISPs like Jio and Airtel and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, were recommended by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. These companies will be held accountable for child abuse enabled by them.
(With inputs from IANS)
