Supreme Court Terms Downloading, Watching Child Pornography Crime Under POCSO/IT Acts

New Delhi: Storage of child pornographic material is an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also asked the Parliament to make changes in the POCSO Act to stop the use of the word ‘child pornography’ and refer to such material as ‘child sexually abusive and exploitative material’.

Pronouncing the verdict for the Bench, Justice JB Pariwala set aside the Kerala High Court’s verdict which held that mere downloading and storing of child pornography on one’s mobile phone couldn’t be considered as an offence under the POCSO Act or the IT Act.

The apex court termed the Kerala HC verdict as “atrocious”.

Ruling that an automatic or accidental downloading of child pornography, i.e., videos of children engaged in sexually explicit act or conduct was not an offence under Section 67B (b) of the IT Act or Section 15(2) of the POCSO Act when evidence showed no specific intent to transmit or distribute such content, the Kerala High Court had discharged the accused who had allegedly downloaded child pornography on his phone from an app.

The top court had referred to a challenge against a Madras High Court order that said watching child pornographic videos will not by itself attract offences under the POCSO Act. “We have reserved judgment in the Madras High Court order challenge, just wait for it,” the CJI said.