THE Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it was contemplating a policy framework to tackle the menace of child pornography and circulation of non-consensual explicit content involving adults. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that the bill might extend to imposing liability on intermediaries not just to take down offensive content, but also to apprise authorities about the uploading of the content. He told the top court that the policy framework might provide for bona fide complaints by third parties, not just the affected person. “A statutory legislative mechanism is also under contemplation. I cannot say more until it comes before Parliament,” Mehta said. During the hearing, senior advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for NGO Prajwala, apprised the court about the absence of adequate safeguards for adults and the circulation of sexual assault videos. “Explicit videos involving adults are being transmitted. There was a mechanism established pursuant to an earlier order of this Court, but that mechanism is now dysfunctional.

 

“One aspect concerns pornography, but the other issue concerns non-consensual intimate images and videos, including videos of sexual assault. There are two categories,” she said. Mehta told the court that suggestions would be invited from all stakeholders. “In fact, subject to the bill passing through the legislative process, there may be a provision that the moment such material comes to the notice of an intermediary, it must not only be taken down, but the intermediary should also inform the police that somebody has uploaded it,” Mehta said. The top court said it would like a policy regime in the matter to control this menace. The apex court was hearing Prajwala’s plea concerning the circulation of non-consensual intimate images and videos, including videos of sexual assault. The bench also adjourned for four weeks the hearing on a plea seeking a ban on streaming of sexually explicit content on OTT and social media platforms. The plea filed by five petitioners sought guidelines to constitute an authority to prohibit online dissemination of obscene content.