New Delhi, August 17, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over the alleged availability of child abuse content on social media platforms and sought the Centre’s response on allegations that intermediaries were failing to comply with mandatory reporting requirements under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
A Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K.V. Chandran sought responses from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Law and Justice while hearing petitions seeking criminal action against platforms allegedly failing to report cases as required under the law.
The petitions, filed by the Just Rights for Children Alliance (JRCA) and Bachpan Bachao Andolan, also raised concerns over the alleged presence of paid advertisements promoting Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM) on social media platforms.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on September 24 and sought the Centre’s position on a proposal for creating a centralised online mechanism through which intermediaries could report CSEAM cases and share digital evidence with Indian law enforcement agencies.
The petitioners submitted that social media platforms currently report CSEAM cases to the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), but allegedly do not directly report them to juvenile police units or local police as required under the POCSO Act, 2012.
The plea also sought a uniform standard operating procedure for intermediaries covering the detection and reporting of such material, preservation of digital evidence and sharing of Internet Protocol (IP) details with investigating agencies.
The Supreme Court permitted the petitioners to implead the concerned intermediaries in the proceedings and seek implementation of directions issued by the court on September 23, 2024.
The proceedings follow the Supreme Court’s observations last year that intermediaries cannot claim safe-harbour protection under the Information Technology Act if they fail to comply with mandatory reporting obligations under POCSO.
The court had also emphasised that intermediaries must fulfil due-diligence requirements to claim safe-harbour protection and observed that POCSO would prevail in case of any inconsistency with other laws.
The apex court had further held that retaining child pornographic material without deleting or reporting it could indicate an intention to transmit the material and constitute an offence under the POCSO Act.
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