Did demand for child sex abuse material fuel Indian traffic on Pornhub in lockdown?

A study by the India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) has claimed that there is an increased demand for child sexual abuse material material (CSAM, also referred to as 'child pornography') has been seen ever since the COVID-19 induced lockdown was enforced.

Data from Pornhub, the world's largest pornography website, also reveals that traffic from India has increased by 95% between March 24 and 26, 2020, as compared to their pre-coronavirus average traffic, the ICPF said. According to the ICPF, the online data monitoring websites are showing an increase in demand for searches like 'child porn', 'sexy child' and 'teen sex videos' during this time period.

"This presents a chilling reality of the extreme threat faced by India's children during this period of lockdown. Demand for child sexual abuse material indicates children are more vulnerable to sexual predators," ICPF said.

However, the increase in traffic on Pornhub, and the searches, may not necessarily indicate an increase in CSAM demand in light of the lockdown. Pornhub made its premium content free across the world on March 24. The website’s insights show that traffic spiked on the platform everywhere between March 24 and 27, not just India – which could also be the reason behind more searches that usual being recorded for CSAM. The highest spike of 24.4% higher traffic than on average, was recorded on March 25. Pornhub’s traffic has seen comparatively lower increase than average in the days since March 27.

What the ICPF report found

ICPF conducted the study in December. The report titled 'Child Sexual Abuse Material in India' is a research of CSAM demand in 100 cities in India like New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Indore.The overall demand for CSAM was an average of 5 million per month in 100 cities on the public web during December 2019, which has now spiked.

It found that New Delhi was amongst the cities where there is a "high demand" for CSAM.

The report reveals that there was an up to 200% increase in demand for violent content which shows children "choking", "bleeding" and “tortured" during the period of the study. "Metro cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, besides many Tier-II and capital cities, which are seeing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, have been red-flagged by the December study as hotspots for child pornography," the ICPF said.

"ICPF has warned that this indicates millions of paedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts have migrated online, making the Internet extremely unsafe for children. Without stringent action, this could result in a drastic rise in sexual crimes against children," it added.

The report cites Europol, United Nations, ECPAT reports which say that children are now more prone to online grooming and sexual coercion, and also refers to recent news of the Childline India Helpline reporting more than 92,000 SOS calls asking for protection from abuse and violence in 11 days of the lockdown.

The organisation has requested the authorities to further step up online vigil in these cities for potential exploiters. Further, the Rajya Sabha Committee on the issue, instituted by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, has recommended stringent laws for Internet service providers like Jio and Airtel, and platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to hold them accountable for child abuse enabled by these companies.

The ICPF reiterated the urgent need to implement these recommendations. "This is a blatant violation of the directions of the Honourable Supreme Court, and a violation of national policy. Pornographic websites are playing hide-and-seek with Indian law and judiciary by simply changing their website URLs," Nivedita Ahuja, spokesperson for the ICPF said.

"The Government of India must urgently crackdown on child pornography and also initiate a global dialogue for an international convention against child sexual abuse material," she added.

The India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) is one of the largest child protection organisations in South Asia, working to end child trafficking and child rape. It seeks to achieve its mission by supporting organisations with strategic funding and resources across South Asia.

(IANS inputs)

Note: This story has been modified from the originally published version.