Nagpur, Jun 25 Online child sexual exploitation cases are rising and have emerged as one of the most serious forms of cybercrime, the Bombay High Court has said, refusing relief to a man whose Instagram account was permanently suspended for sending nude content to a minor.
Online social media platforms have a responsibility to ensure that their services are not misused for facilitating or promoting child exploitation, considering the grave nature of such offences and the devastating consequences they have on children, said a bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode in its order of June 19.
A copy of which was made available on Thursday.
“Online child sexual exploitation is increasing day by day. Online child sexual exploitation has emerged as one of the most serious forms of cyber-enabled crime, causing irreversible physical, psychological and emotional harm to children,” the HC said.
The court agreed with the action taken by Meta-owned Instagram against the petitioner.
“Meta’s zero-tolerance policy cannot be faulted as being arbitrary or disproportionate. Rather, it constitutes a necessary and proportionate response to one of the most heinous forms of online abuse, reflecting the paramount importance of protecting children in the digital environment,” HC said.
It added that strict adherence to such policies is therefore not only justified but also essential to ensure the safety of children and to prevent the misuse of social media platforms for criminal purposes.
Dismissing the man’s petition, the court said it was of the opinion that no illegality had been committed by Meta in suspending his Instagram account permanently.
The petitioner’s advocate Priti Badwaik Pendke argued that he was not given an opportunity to correct his mistake and a harsh action of permanent suspension of his account was taken.
The man had moved HC after his Instagram account was permanently suspended by Meta on account of multiple violations of community standards, including child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity.
He approached HC after he failed to get any relief from the Grievance Appellate Committee, formed under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The bench in its order noted that, as per the evidence, there was no dispute that the contents he had allegedly sent to another social media user was a minor and hence it amounted to child sexual exploitation.
“As per Meta policy, it is permissible to suspend a person’s Instagram account if the violation was severe and even if it happened only once,” the court said.
Commending the Meta policy, the court said the company treats content involving child exploitation, abuse and endangerment as one of the most serious violations of its Community Standards and has adopted a strict zero-tolerance approach.
Unlike ordinary police violations that may attract warnings, content involving child sexual exploitation may result in immediate and permanent suspension of an account, the court said.
It added that Meta reserves the right to remove the offending content, permanently disable the accounts involved in such activities and report the matter to the competent law enforcement authorities whenever legally required.
