NEW DELHI: The government has notified the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Rules 2020, enabling implementation of recent amendments to the Act that made punishment provisions more stringent and for the first time defined child pornography and provided for crackdown for possession of pornographic material involving children. The Pocso rules became effective from March 9.The rules specify that state governments must formulate a child protection policy based on the principle of zero-tolerance to violence against children, which shall be adopted by all institutions, organisations, or any other agency working with children. The provision comes on the back of recent cases of child sexual abuse in child care institutions, including in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Deoria in UP.Laying out the detailed modalities for reporting of pornographic material involving a child, the rules state that "any person who has received any pornographic material involving a child or any information regarding such pornographic material being stored, possessed, distributed, circulated, transmitted, facilitated, propagated or displayed, or is likely to be distributed, facilitated or transmitted in any manner shall report the contents to the special juvenile police unit (SJPU) or police, or the cyber-crime portal".The rules also specify that such persons will also hand over all necessary material, including the source from which such material may have originated, to the authorities.The report will have to include details of the device in which such pornographic content was noticed and the suspected device from which such content was received including the platform on which the content was displayed. This provision is significant as it makes accountable those platforms on which child pornography is circulated.The rules also call upon the Centre and state governments to create widespread awareness about the procedures of making such reports from time to time.It also lay down that state government will have to prepare age-appropriate educational material and curriculum for children, informing them about various aspects of personal safety, including measures to protect their physical and virtual identity.It has also been stipulated that any institution housing children or coming in regular contact with children including schools, crechesor any other facility must ensure a police verification and background check of every staff member on periodic basis.