On Tuesday, an informal group of Rajya Sabha MPs is looking into the issue of regulating access of children to pornography on the Internet and it has decided to hold deliberations with law enforcement agencies, TRAI and social media giants such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
According to Hindustan Times, the Rajya Sabha MPs group will consult social media companies like ByteDance (the company that owns TikTok), WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, Sharechat and Microsoft to find a way to resolve the issue. The informal group includes 14 MPs from 10 parties and it was formed by the Upper House Chairman Venkaiah Naidu. The group decided that it will consult civil society groups, experts, parents, government agencies like Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and law enforcement agencies on this sensitive issue.
The group noted that the Internet offers significant developmental and educational benefits for children but the growing access to it and social media leads to increased exposure to unsafe content like pornography and potential risks of online harassment, abuse and exploitation.
The MPs who are a part of this group are Vinay P Shasrabuddhe, Rajeev Chandrashekar Roopa Ganguly, Jairam Ramesh, MV Rajeev Gauda, Amee Yajnik, Derek O'Brien, Tiruchi Siva, Vijila Sathyanath, Jaya Bachchan, Vandana Chavan, Amar Patnaik, Kahkashan Perween and Sanjay Singh.
