Browsing child pornography sites is to become an offence in India, along with the creation or transmission of child pornography.
A newly amended Information Technology Act has come as a caution for the porn site users, as viewing child porn online, will now become punishable under the IT Act. Offenders are liable to five years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000,000.
This is the first time in nine years that the bill has been revised. Other changes include bringing cyber terrorism, identity theft and violation of privacy into the domain of cyber crime. Critics of the bill say that it will enable the government to snoop into citizens’ computers while investigating “any offence”.
Creating and transmitting child pornography was punishable under the the previous law. The amendment added a new clause, which makes browsing, downloading and viewing such materials punishable under the law.
Section 67 of the existing act deals with “publishing obscene information in electronic form”, but does not specifically define “pornography” or make it an offence. Child pornography is not even mentioned. But the revised avatar, Section 67B, proposes specifically to punish involvement in sexually explicit content that depicts children. It will also be an offence to “cultivate, entice or induce children to online relationship with other children for a sexual act.”
Cybercrime experts believe that once the bill is introduced it will have a huge positive impact. The only fear is that innocent users who accidentally open a site could be branded offenders. The bill is now awaiting the Presidential assent.
Popularity: 8% [?]