Even though the country has banned pornography entirely, it continues to be one of the biggest contributors and consumers of child abuse content.
But latest data has revealed an even more disturbing trend, especially as the nation has been under a tight lockdown since March 23. According to the India Child Protection Fund (ICPF), there has been a steep increase in demand for searches like “child porn”, “sexy child” and “teen sex videos”, along with an increase in traffic on Pornhub from India by 95 percent between March 24 and 26, 2020, as compared to before the lockdown.
The report, which is titled “Child Sexual Abuse Material in India” has trends from 100 Indian cities that include New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Indore among others. In December 2019, the ICPF recorded an average demand for child porn of 5 million per month in these 100 cities.
Paedophiles become more active online
Over the last few weeks, international agencies such as the Europol, the United Nations and End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) have reported that paedophiles and child pornograpy addicts have been increasing their activities to lure children who are now spending more time online. A report by the International Labour Organisation says that “cyber-trafficking, grooming (the act of befriending a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child’s inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse), sextortion, sexting, live streaming of child sexual abuse” are some of the new trends of crime against children and vulnerable communities.
