The Supreme Court on Monday described the National Action Plan to curb online viewing of pornographic videos by minors as an issue of “utmost public importance” while allowing a petition seeking in this direction to be considered as a representation of the Union government.
The court said that this issue requires urgent consideration as minors are increasingly indulging in sexual crimes due to easy access to obscene videos and materials on the Internet. “The issue at hand is of utmost public importance. However, the issue is not a matter of law to be determined by the courts. It needs a policy that relates primarily to the use of technological advancement,” a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalia Bagchi and V Mohana said while hearing advocate BL Jain’s plea.
Lawyer Varun Thakur, who appeared for Jain, said that pornographic content causes excessive psychological distress in the minds of minors, which is unhealthy and prompts them to commit sexual crimes.
The authority said that such issues fall within the jurisdiction of experts and entities, especially the Ministry of Information Technology. It allowed the petition to be referred to the relevant ministry. “We have no reason to doubt that the authorities will pay due attention to such concerns raised by the petitioner.”
Thakur said the case raises a legal question. He pointed out that the Information Technology Law of 2000 criminalizes publishing pornographic videos, but does not punish watching such content. He added that because of this gap, the authorities are unable to limit access to this content online.
“You want to bring the moon to Earth, which we can’t do,” the bench said. The ruling on the petition stated that the concerned authority will decide on the petition’s call to develop a national policy and formulate an action plan regarding the viewing of pornographic videos, especially by minors.
The petition said minors have been exposed to online tools since the Covid pandemic, when schools had to shift their classes to online mode. She added that there is no mechanism to prevent minors from watching pornographic materials on these devices.
More than 20 million pornographic videos or clips, including child pornography, are released online every year, the petition said. She added that the authorities have the power to issue directives to prevent public access to any information through any computer resource. But this was not effective in dealing with pornography.
