Other than sharing the video with wrong information, the act of sharing the video in itself was wrong.

The law prohibits revealing the identity of the child victim/survivor. It is illegal under section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act as well as Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

And Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code criminalises revealing the identity of a rape victim, which has been reiterated by the Supreme Court.

One can also be booked under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, which prohibits publishing as well as sharing material depicting a child in a sexually explicit acts in electronic form.

The Act also prohibits browsing, downloading, advertising, promoting, exchanging and distributing such material in any form.

Minor victims’ identity must be concealed even if their family consents to reveal it, the apex court said.