NCPCR holds meeting with Google, social media platforms to discuss safety measures for children

New Delhi, Sep 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) held a meeting with Google and social media platforms like Meta, X, Snapchat etc. to discuss issues pertaining to protection of rights and safety of children, besides various other issues.

The NCPCR said in a statement that a meeting was recently held with Google and social media platforms including YouTube, Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), X, Snapchat, ShareChat, Reddit and Bumble to discuss a number of issues including age verification mechanisms and safety tools used by the sites.

The meeting also discussed mechanisms for detecting and reporting child pornography (CSAM), as well as methods for restricting and blocking CSAM.

Discussions also focused on the support (by social media platforms) provided to law enforcement authorities, the tools deployed to identify deepfakes and track down perpetrators, and measures to protect victims and their privacy.

The statement said the discussions also focused on parameters for reporting cases of concern to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and measures to protect children from explicit content on social media.

The statement further stated that during the meeting, consensus was reached between the social media platforms and NCPCR on some important points.

“For the safety and security of children on platforms, social media platforms must adhere to robust Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and adhere to Section 9 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. This law has been passed by Parliament and we must all ensure that this law remains untouched,” it said.

The issue of mandatory reporting of CSAM was also deliberated upon. “As per the provisions of Section 19 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, online platforms should be required by law to report cases of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) directly to local law enforcement authorities,” the statement said.

Furthermore, it was stressed that social media platforms should enter into contracts with minors only if they have explicit consent from their parents or legal guardians. Moreover, the platforms should display disclaimers in English, Hindi and local/regional languages ​​before displaying adult content.

“These disclaimers are intended to warn parents that they may be held liable if a child views adult content under the above-mentioned legal provisions,” the statement said.

“Further, social media platforms are requested to provide data on the total number of cases filed with the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children for the period January 2024 to June 2024. This data should include categories of image or video hashes (unique digital fingerprints), content details (e.g. child pornography, child exploitation), time stamp logs, metadata and any other relevant information shared. It is requested to ensure implementation of the above recommendations and submit an Action Taken Report to the Commission within 7 days of the issuance of this letter,” the NCPCR statement said.

Source: IANS

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