Supreme Court seeks government action report on CSAM

India's Supreme Court has set a final deadline for the Indian government to submit a report detailing the measures taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Law and Justice (MOLJ) to curb the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on online and social media platforms.

The court also urged the ministries to explain their future strategies to prevent shortcomings in tackling CSAM on social media. The case is scheduled for further hearing on October 15. This directive followed announcements from Google and Meta that they would begin reporting CSAM incidents.

The current reporting mechanism allows social media intermediaries to report CSAM incidents on their platforms to the U.S.-based non-profit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC then forwards these reports to relevant law enforcement agencies.

In a previous related development, the Madras High Court had ruled that merely downloading or viewing CSAM did not constitute an offense under Section 67B of the IT Act, unless children were involved in its production. However, in September 2024, India's Supreme Court overturned the Madras High Court's decision, deeming it erroneous.

The Supreme Court affirmed that social media intermediaries are obligated to report CSAM material to local authorities and the police in accordance with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.