A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to ensure that social media platforms do not display obscene or pornographic material as they cause a rise in sexual crimes.
The PIL filed by Paediatric Surgeon Sanjay Kulshresthra said easy access to porn through mobile internet was not only distorting sexual behaviour but also causing an “alarming rise in sexual offences” against minor girls.
The plea said in order to control the increasing number of sexual crimes, the top court should direct the respondents to exercise their power under the Information Technology Act to ensure that social media platforms “make reasonable efforts to cause the users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store or share obscene or pornographic material”.
The petitioner has made the Union ministries of Electronics and Information Technology, Home Affairs and Women and Child Development as parties to the case.
“Although there could be many reasons for the alarming rise in rapes in children, the petitioner has found that availability of easy, almost free internet making pornography available 24 hours, especially on mobile phones to all age groups, to all economic classes, could be a significant cause,” the PIL said.
It said viewing pornography was responsible for developing a casual attitude in men towards sexual violence against women.
