Why in News?

• A parliamentary panel has recommended a code of conduct for Internet service providers (ISPs) and strengthening the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to curb Child Pornography.

Highlights:

• The report, prepared by an ad hoc committee set up by the Rajya Sabha and led by Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, was submitted to the Chairman of the House.
• It recommends a multi-pronged strategy detailing technological, institutional, social and educational as well as State-level measures.
• Among its key recommendations is a code of conduct or a set of guidelines for ensuring child safety online.
• It puts a greater onus on ISPs to identify and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as report such content and those trying to access them to the authorities under the national cybercrime portal.
• It has also called for strengthening the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) so that it can serve as the nodal body for curbing child pornography.
• The capabilities required in the NCPCR should include technology, cyberpolicing and prosecution along with an inter-ministerial task force, the panel has proposed.
• The committee has delved into great detail in using technology to curb circulation of child porn such as breaking end-to-end encryption to trace its distributors of child pornography, mandatory applications to monitor children’s access to pornographic content, employing photo DNA to target profile pictures of groups with CSAM.

Drawbacks:

• The suggestion to break encryption may also just lead to traffic moving to different platforms.
• There is also a need to develop a victim-centric strategy instead of just focusing on prosecution.