Latest news with #ChildSexualAbuseMaterial
New Indian Express
a day ago
- New Indian Express
Telangana cyber security registers 10 suo motu cases over child abuse content online; two women booked
HYDERABAD: The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has registered 10 suo motu cases against several suspects for allegedly sharing or uploading Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on the web and social media platforms. Among those named in the FIRs are two women, one from Hyderabad and another from Nalgonda. At least three suspects, including the two women and a man from Hyderabad, allegedly shared child sexual abuse content on Instagram while a man from Secunderabad had uploaded the content on Facebook. The information regarding sharing of the material was passed on by a US agency to Telangana police through the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB has signed an MoU with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), US, to receive cyber-tipline reports and proactively gather information on CSAM. Continued on P5 No conclusive proof found in preliminary investigation Preliminary verification was conducted on the leads such as addresses, mobile numbers, email IDs and other details by the TGCSB. 'The Director, TGCSB issued a memo to register 10 FIRs at CCPS, HQ, Hyderabad. … the name and address traced with NCMEC input during this enquiry shall be further corroborated with other leads and clues and the person involved in the creation/circulation/sharing of CSAM shall be identified and connected to the offence,' the complaint said. The findings in the preliminary verification are not conclusive proof and can only be used as a basis for a thorough investigation, it added. The cases were filed under Section 67B of the IT Act. Investigation is ongoing.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Urbana man arrested, accused of possessing child sexual abuse material
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. — An Urbana man is facing charges of child pornography possession. In March of 2024, the Champaign County Sheriff's Office received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). According to the tip, 26-year-old Jesus Gonzalez-Martinez was in possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Decatur man accused of possessing child sex abuse material The sheriff's office conducted a 'thorough investigation,' and detectives confirmed that the material was linked to Gonzalez-Martinez. He was arrested, and police said he later confessed to possessing the material. Now, Gonzalez-Martinez is facing three counts of child pornography possession. On Thursday, he appeared in court for his arraignment, entered a plea of not guilty and requested a trial by jury. On Friday, he'll be back in court for a detention hearing. The Champaign County Sheriff's Department said that this remains an 'active and ongoing investigation.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NDTV
29-05-2025
- NDTV
Virtual Scars, Real Harm: India's Legal Shift on Child Abuse in the Digital Space
New Delhi: A few weeks ago, the European Union's Europol made over 25 arrests during a crackdown on AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The operation which spanned 35 countries led to 70 arrests, the rescue of 39 children, and the seizure of devices. The main accused, a Danish national, ran an online platform which allowed users access to AI-generated content depicting child abuse, after making a "symbolic online payment." This is the brute reality of child sexual abuse in the digital era, a state-of-the-art borderless crime, amplified by anonymity, which is difficult to detect using traditional frameworks. AI-generated abusive content like deep-fake manipulation, chat-bots and other emerging forms like self-generated content, live-streaming of CSAM, online grooming, and Webcam Child Sex Tourism (WCST) are on the rise. Even though the artificially created content has no real victims, it raises serious concerns about the human tendency to derive gratification from simulated suffering inflicted upon children, eventually triggering demand for such content everywhere. A Legal Turning Point: From Moral Denial to Legal Recognition India accomplished a breakthrough in its legal journey on September 23, 2024, when the Supreme Court delivered a landmark Judgment in Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S Harish, addressing the legal governance and criminalisation of 'CSEAM- Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material', earlier known as 'Child Pornography'. The case arose from a Madras High Court judgment that quashed the criminal proceedings against an accused found in possession of CSEAM. It held that mere possession/storage or viewing of such material without an intent to transmit does not constitute an offence under the Information Technology Act, 2000 or Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act). The Supreme Court not only overturned the High Court's order of terming possession, storage and watching of CSEAM in private as a matter of 'mere moral decay' but also criminalised the downloading, viewing, possession, and storage thereof, whether shared or not. The court also issued a sweeping set of directions, marking a watershed moment in India's jurisprudence on digital child protection. These directions inter-alia mandated legislative reforms by way of replacing the term 'Child Pornography' with CSEAM to also cover the generative nature of content. 'Child pornography' is misleading and trivialises the severity of the crime, as it implies consensual adult content while 'CSEAM' accurately reflects the exploitative nature of these materials, including AI-generated depictions. Statistics and Trends: Scale of the Problem The judgment comes amidst an alarming surge in incidents in India. The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), USA, in its tip-line report 2023, reveals that India accounts for around 9 million of the 36.2 million suspected CSEAM reports worldwide. A 2023 report, Entangled in the Web: Cybercrimes against Children in India by India Child Protection, stated that there was a five-fold increase in such cases from less than 3% in 2017 to 15% in 2021 in the country. Meanwhile, NCRB data revealed a staggering 2,561% increase in reported child pornography cases from 44 in 2018 to 1,171 in 2022. Recognising the gravity of such cybercrimes, the Government of India implemented the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children Scheme under Nirbhaya Fund. Moreover, a MoU has been signed between NCRB India, MHA and NCMEC for facilitating the tip-line reports on online child sexual explicit contents. Impact of Judgment However, the last couple of months have seen some direct and tangible impact of the judgment. Within a week of the judgment, Punjab's Cybercrime Division arrested a man and identified 54 suspects for disseminating CSEAM via platforms like Instagram and in Hyderabad, three individuals were held for downloading and sharing CSEAM on social media platforms. These arrests were facilitated by cyber tip-line reports that provided crucial leads such as IP addresses and emails. In October 2024, in a major operation dubbed 'Paedo Hunt,' the Delhi Police raided 20 locations and booked 11 individuals for circulating CSEAM. State Governments, too, have sprung into urgent action. Odisha Government announced the formation of a dedicated task force to coordinate with law enforcement for investigating and prosecuting CSEAM-related crimes, and committed to a zero-tolerance policy. The Indian legislature has also taken steps to ensure the online safety of children. Clause 9[7] of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, provides for 'parental verification' for processing of children's data, thereby aiming to curb CSEAM by restricting the profiling, targeting, and behavioural advertising of children. This judgment is not the end, but the beginning—one of many necessary interventions to dismantle this growing menace. We now need a revolutionary approach to pierce through technological warfare such as cryptocurrency, which is widely used by perpetrators due to its anonymity and decentralisation. Global Practices and India The global legal frameworks have evolved to deal with this complex cross-border crime, and while India has taken some gigantic strides, our regulatory response and enforcement must keep pace. The United States criminalizes not only real child-abuse content, but also computer-generated, and AI CSEAM. It also mandates the platforms to report to NCMEC, while empowering a NCMEC-Tech Industry Consortium to protect children in digital spaces. The laws in the United Kingdom not only cover all generative forms of CSEAM, but also prescribe strict penalties for failing to proactively detect or remove CSEAM. Its regulatory watchdog, 'Ofcom' holds digital platforms accountable on their legal responsibility to protect users, especially children, from online harm. While India's legal framework has evolved significantly, it lacks stringent provisions and penalties targeting virtual or AI-generated CSEAM. Our laws do not explicitly cover all forms of non-real and AI-generated depictions. Resultantly, our mandatory reporting, enforcement and inter-agency coordination mechanisms require a complete overhaul given the transnational, anonymous, and rapidly evolving nature of these crimes. Conclusion: Implementation and International Revolution A borderless crime requires a borderless response. The Supreme Court's judgment is a jurisprudential innovation that aims to realign India's legal compass towards a child-centric justice system. It has been over eight months since the verdict was delivered. While the directions are open-ended, the top Court may form a judicial monitoring committee or amicus-curiae model to oversee implementation. In an era where digital boundaries blur and technological innovation outpaces the regulatory frameworks, the time is ripe for India to not only enforce the landmark verdict but also to spearhead an international digital safety convention to protect the most vulnerable across borders. Simultaneously, accountability of technology platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and hosting sites must be etched into law and practice. A multiagency taskforce similar to Ofcom or a Tech industry consortium also must be considered to enable a structured, proactive, and collaborative response to digital child sexual abuse. Because justice must evolve not only in statutes, but also in cyberspace, protocols, and multilateral cooperation. (Rachna Tyagi, is a General Counsel at Just Rights for Children and Partner Ethicus Legal and Consulting Solutions).
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
Man in jail on suspicion of sexually assaulting two minors, deputies say
A 24-year-old man is in jail on suspicion of sexually assaulting two minors. Ethan Libby of Fresno is accused of committing sexual acts against minors, contacting minors for the purposes of sex and possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), deputies said. Detectives followed up on a CyberTip Friday afternoon and contacted Libby at the Bridgewood Crossing apartment complex, located at West Bullard and North Gentry avenues in Fresno. While detectives were investigating, they learned that Libby had allegedly sexually assaulted two minors. Libby was arrested and his electronic devices were collected for further analysis, deputies said. Detectives are concerned there might be additional victims who have not yet come forward. Libby is charged with four felonies, including oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child 10 or younger; possession of child pornography; use of a minor to sell/produce pornography; miscellaneous offense and arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd and lascivious behavior. Libby remains in jail on $245,000 bail. Anyone with information is asked to call HSI Special Agent Monique Jacques at 559-351-1019. Tips may also be submitted to Valley Crime Stoppers at 559-498-7867 or online at Tipsters can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
55 men arrested in France in major operation to bust online pedophile ring
Fifty-five men from across France were arrested between Monday and Thursday morning as part of a large-scale operation to dismantle a pedophile network operating through the messaging service Telegram, according to France's Office for the Protection of Minors. The suspects, aged between 25 and 75, are accused of exchanging messages on Telegram with an 'extremely dangerous' child sex offender who was incarcerated in the summer of 2024, and whose own children were rescued after being abused, Quentin Bevan, head of the OFMIN's operational unit told CNN on Thursday. 'These 55 individuals all exchanged CSAM imagery (Child Sexual Abuse Material) with the dangerous pedophile, so we had digital evidence implicating all of them,' said Bevan. Bevan said that the arrests are 'the fruit of a ten-month long investigation.' 'It was a major investigation and infiltration operation on this Telegram group,' Bevan said. 'We had to follow the exchanges, analyze them, and identify the individuals hiding behind these Telegram pseudonyms — especially those who had children, had criminal records, or worked in sensitive professions involving contact with children.' Bevan said the men are from all ages and backgrounds: fathers, civil servants, military personnel, and France, the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material is punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a €100,000 ($112,747) fine. CNN has reached out to Telegram for comment on the arrests. This is not the first high-profile case involving the platform in France. In August 2024, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was detained at Paris's Bourget Airport on a warrant related to Telegram's moderation policies. French authorities indicted Durov on August 28, 2024 on several charges, including money laundering and spreading child sex abuse material. Durov said in a statement soon afterwards that he was committed to improving his app's moderation and that authorities were trying to hold him 'personally responsible for other people's illegal use of Telegram.'
