Kailash Satyarthi wants UNSC to act on child pornography

With the internet being increasingly used for child pornography and trafficking, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi is pitching for action led by the UN Security Council (UNSC) and involving the Interpol to check the menace.

Satyarthi, who has been running an NGO in India for the protection of child rights for about 40 years, said he is working to build pressure on this count by roping in more than two dozen other Nobel laureates.

The comments came in view of the media reports claiming that technology platforms like Facebook and Google reported millions of videos and photos of sexual abuse against children last year.

“For the last two years in close cooperation with more than two dozen noble laureate, I have been working on a new legally binding UN convention. That convention is to prohibit any form of digital abuse of children,” Satyarthi said in an exclusive interview to IANS.

Satyarthi while speaking on the completion of five years of him receiving the Nobel peace prize, claimed that no other agency, but the Security Council (UNSC) can keep a check on the child pornography as only it ‘has teeth’ to act.

“There should be a dedicated agency and I have been demanding that, that agency be the Security Council because it has teeth. The rest of the agencies cannot take action against any government or any company,” Satyarthi claimed while advocating stronger steps to curb the child pornography around the globe.

“There should be a small unit hosted at the Security Council and that unit must be headed by Interpol so it can trace real time uploads and downloads to keep a check on this illicit industry.” he added.

In India, Interpol has already started to help the agencies learn techniques to track down criminals who manufacture or upload child porn.

Earlier in October, it was announced that the international agency will send its child protection experts to Kerala to impart hands-on training to a selected group of cops.

The training, slated for next February, will be held in three-phases. The cops, who are deployed to use of software, will be given training first. Thereafter, the evidence-collection team and digital forensic experts will undergo training separately. Each group will be getting a week’s training.

In India, currently, the Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011 provides that platforms have to inform users not to publish or share any content which is obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, or harms minors in any way.Platforms have to remove such infringing content within 36 hours of receiving an order from a court or other authorized agencies.

Satyarthi who has been running the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation for over 40 years now, also called upon the Indian government to amend the current Right to Education (RTE) act and make quality education free and available to all children up to the age of 18 or class 12th, whichever is earlier.

“The biggest solution to most of the children related issues is to make an amendment in RTE, so that children can get educated up to the age of 18, and if you cannot do it in one go, then I propose that the government should make education to child available till 18 years of age for the first phase,” Satyarthi said.-IANS/Rohan Agarwal