MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently recommended that the union government may consider bringing a legislation that regulates internet usage by children. Till such a decision is taken, the state and national commission for protection of child rights should draw an action plan to create awareness among children about child rights and safe internet usage, the court said.
The Madras HC bench of justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan made the observations on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by S Vijayakumar in 2018, seeking a direction to internet service providers (ISPs) to provide ‘parental window’ service and to create awareness among the children through the authorities. Vijayakumar’s counsel KPS Palanivel Rajan said in view of the proportion of pornographic contents easily available to children, the petitioner sought the above relief.
Rajan further said the commission has a statutory duty and responsibility to spread child right literacy among various sections of the society and promote awareness of the safeguards available for protection of these rights. “No doubt, certain awareness campaigns go around focusing children at schools. However, campaign is not adequate,” he added.
Referring to a new legislation brought by Australian government prohibiting children below 16 years to hold social media accounts, he said similar legislation could be introduced in India.
Meanwhile, advocate Chevanan Mohan appearing for ISPs stated that periodically the intermediaries review the situation and pursuant to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, necessary actions, including blocking of objectionable websites, are taken whenever it is brought to the notice of the ISPs concerned.
Hearing both sides, the judges said though websites are updated, there should be control at the user end and it can be achieved only if there is a parent control app available in the device. For this, the end users should be made aware about the menace of child pornography and measures to prevent it, they added. While it’s the individual choice and right to access such obnoxious material or to avoid it, as far as children are concerned, the vulnerability is high, so the parents’ responsibility is higher, the court observed.
Noting the reference made by Rajan regarding the Australian legislation, the judges said the union government may explore the possibility of passing a legislation like Australia. Till such legislation is passed, the authorities concerned should accelerate their awareness campaign more effectively, the judges said. “We hope that the commission both state and central will draw an action plan in this aspect and implement the same in letter and spirit,” they added and disposed of the petition.