The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has suggested the Central Government to consider banning pornographic videos on the Internet for children below 16 years of age like Australia. The court gave this suggestion on the basis of a public interest litigation, which was filed by S. Vijayakumar had filed.
Vijayakumar claimed in the petition that pornographic videos are easily available on the internet, due to which the future of children is being affected. He said that software should be used to stop this content and instructions should be issued from the concerned government agencies.
Justice G. The bench of Justice Jayachandran and Justice KK Ramakrishnan acknowledged during the hearing that it is the duty of the government to protect children from porn videos and protect their rights. Senior advocate KPS Palanivel Rajan, appearing for the petitioner, argued that internet service providers should use technical measures to strictly restrict obscene content.
He also said that action should be taken on this issue under the Protection of Child Rights Act. At the same time, advocate Chevanan Mohan, appearing for the Association of Internet Service Providers, argued that appropriate steps are being taken under the Digital Media Intermediary Guidelines and whenever complaints are received regarding obscene content, immediate action is taken.
The court said that it is the primary duty of the National and State Child Rights Commissions to run awareness programs for children and protect their rights. However, the court also admitted that the number of such awareness programs is often very small. In the end, the court appealed to the Central Government to consider measures like Australia and also recommended running awareness programs for children.
Australia recently banned children under 16 from creating accounts on social media (such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube), with the aim of improving children’s online safety and mental health.
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