The Supreme Court of India is hearing arguments from child protection organizations after the Madras High Court ruled that downloading and watching child pornography is not a criminal offense. In January, the High Court dismissed charges against 28-year-old S. Harish, who was caught in possession of two pieces of child sexual abuse material on his cell phone.
According to OpIndia, in addition to claiming Harish was innocent because he’d never viewed child porn before, Madras High Court Judge N. Anand Venkatesh also noted that it was “done in privacy without affecting or influencing anyone else.”
The defendant claimed that the CSAM had auto-downloaded after he received it through the popular messaging app WhatsApp, which his attorneys maintained is not a criminal offense under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act.
“To make out an offense under Section 14(1) of the Protection of Child from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012, a child or children must have been used for pornography purposes. This would mean that the accused person should have used the child for pornographic purposes. Even assuming that the accused person had watched child pornography [videos], that strictly will not fall within the scope of Section 14(1) of the Protection of Child from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012,” explained the judge at the Madras High Court.
Harish had his charges quashed, with the judge explaining that merely downloading and watching child pornography would not be considered a criminal offense under the POCSO Act and the Information Technology law. The decision lead to outrage from child protection groups.
Hellbound and Down 