Centre sends report on child porn viewers' details to TN police

Tamil Nadu police have received a 5,000-page report from the central government about the details of mobile numbers from which child pornography has been watched and downloaded.

According to police, the report contains details including the mobile numbers, the time during when they watched such videos and the name of the websites from where they streamed those.

“However, we do not have the name and address of the perpetrators. We have sought the details of the mobile number users from the concerned mobile networks. Once we get those details, it would be consolidated and would be sent to the offices of the concerned commissioners of police and district superintendents of police for further action,” M Ravi, Additional Director General of Police, said.

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The state police have also deputed Chennai SP Jayashree as the nodal officer to inquire into the matter. Once the details are collected, Ravi said, they would take action against those who watch, store and share child pornography.

However, the SPs in various districts told The Federal they would not arrest everyone who allegedly possessed child porn videos.

“We will interrogate them about how they came into possession of such videos; whether they downloaded the videos or received from someone else. Without finding the source, initiating action alone would not work effectively,” said an SP in the western region on the condition of anonymity.

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A city police commissioner in the Delta region said they would not initiate action on first timers who might have accidentally accessed such websites.

“We cannot completely blame those in their teenage as their parents are equally responsible for providing them with mobile phones. Since many pornography sites advertise in between mobile games, chances are high that the teens between ages 13 and 18 click such advertisements out of curiosity,” the city police commissioner said.

“So, if they are first timers, we would put them in counselling centres. For teenagers, more than legal action, we are advised to provide counselling through counsellors and police personnel in the Social Justice and Human Rights department,” the commissioner said.

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However, an inspector in the cybercrime cell in a city in the western region raised doubts whether the police would be able to procure the details of the mobile users.

“Firstly, it is not possible to get the address of all the users who had watched child pornography as some might have ported from one network to another. Also, even after finding the users’ name and their addresses, it may not be possible to track them down  in the same address as many of the mobile numbers may have been purchased with old address proofs or sometimes even without documents,” said the inspector.