Madras High Court Asks Centre To Consider Framing Law Similar To That In Australia For Monitoring Children's Internet Usage
The Madras High Court recently asked the central government to consider bringing in a law, similar to that in Australia, to monitor internet usage by children.
The bench of Justice G Jayachandran and Justice KK Ramakrishnan made the suggestion after noting that pornographic content is widely available to children using the internet. The court observed that the end users had to be made aware of the menace of child pornography, and till such legislation was passed, it was the duty of the authorities to create awareness campaigns.
“Ultimately, it is the individual choice and right to access such obnoxious material or to avoid it. As far as children are concerned, the vulnerability is high, so the parents' responsibility is higher. As suggested by the learned Counsel for the writ petitioner, Union of India may explore possibility of passing legislation like Australia. Till such legislation is passed, the authorities concerned shall accelerate their awareness campaign more effectively, they shall take the message to the vulnerable group through all available medias. We hope that the Commission both at State and in Central will draw an action plan in this aspect and implement the same in letter and spirit,” the court said.
The court made the observations on a public interest litigation filed by S Vijayakumar. Vijayakumar had raised concerns about internet usage among kids. He had submitted that there was a rise in internet usage and downloading of abusive porn, and other games like Blue Whale. He had thus sought directions to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights to direct internet service providers to provide a parental window. It was argued that through the Parental Window, the parents could regulate the content that their kids could view.
The petitioner submitted that awareness to stakeholders and parental window in device would substantially control the menace of obnoxious pornographic material accessible to children.
The court noted that the Commission had a statutory duty and responsibility to spread child rights literacy among various sections of society and to promote the safeguards available to them. The court noted that, though some awareness campaigns were already undertaken, they were not adequate.
The court was informed that the periodical reviews were conducted by the intermediaries and pursuant to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, whenever objectionable websites were brought to the notice of the concerned internet service provider, they were blocked.
The court noted that, along with this, there must be control at the user end also, which could be achieved only through a parental control app. Thus, the court suggested that a law, similar to that in Australia, could be brought in.
Till such time, the court directed the authorities to accelerate the awareness campaigns more effectively. The court added that the State Commission and the Central Commission could draw an action plan and implement the same in letter and spirit.
Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. K. P. S. Palanivel Rajan, Senior Counsel for Mr. K. Prabakaran
Counsel for Respondent: Ms. B. Deepa, Mr. J. Ashok, Additional Government Pleader, Mr. Chevanan Mohan, Mr. Madhan babu, Mr. R. G. Shankar Ganesh, Mr. M. D Poornachare
Case Title: S Vijayakumar v. Union of India and Others
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 499
Case No: W.P.(MD)No.23323 of 2018