The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine if the increasing instances of rape videos and secretly shot MMS going viral and online sex rackets could be curbed if social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are made accused along with the perpetrators of sexual violence. Also Read: WhatsApp, Twitter hotbed channels to advertise sex



To begin with, the social justice bench of the court asked the Centre to probe and file a report regarding an online child sex racket using Facebook in which nearly 3,000 paedophiles posted their comments on photos of several minor girls, exchanged their views and posed 'suggestive' queries to each other.

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After drawing its attention to the matter, social activist Sunitha Krishnan, whose NGO Prajwala has launched the #ShameTheRapistCampaign, urged the court to issue a direction to the Kerala Police which had busted the racket in May this year, to also make Facebook an accused in the case.

The police probe had led to the arrest of six persons and rescue of four minors. "Let us first get the response of the Centre by January 8. Then we shall examine it (whether to ask the police to make Facebook an accused)," Justice Madan B Lokur told Krishnan.

Krishnan said it initially appeared as if pictures of children were being posted on Facebook. But 'Kochu Sundarikal' (little, pretty girls as it was named in Malayalam) was in reality a den of pedophiles, with most people commenting in Malayalam.

Hyderabad-based social activist Sunitha Krishnan's non-government organisation runs a campaign against rape videos being circulated. Hyderabad-based social activist Sunitha Krishnan's non-government organisation runs a campaign against rape videos being circulated.

Every single post had pictures of young girls, mostly schoolgoing teens. She said some of the images shockingly included a note by the group administrator, asking: "What would you like to do to her?" She also informed the court about a recent incident in Malad near Mumbai where police booked four teenagers for gang-raping a 15-year-old schoolmate, making a video of the assault and using it to blackmail her into silence.

Mechanism



Amidst hundreds of gangrape videos flooding the internet and several serial sexual offenders roaming free, the court sought the view of the Centre to form an agency with pan-India jurisdiction to act on such clips and take action against the criminals The court, which had ordered the CBI to probe gangrape videos shared on social media, also asked the Home Ministry to respond to the demand for a permanent institutional mechanism by Krishnan who received nearly 100 more videos sent by victims.

Elaborating on why she is making such a demand, Krishnan told the court: "It (an agency with pan-India jurisdiction) is very essential for prompt action. As of now, what is happening is that when I am sitting in Hyderabad I get a video from Kashmir or Haryana. The local police say they do not have the jurisdiction to act upon it. An agency which has jurisdiction over the entire country can immediately lodge an FIR, investigate the matter and take action against the offenders. The reason is that cyber cell does not take suo motu (on its own) notice of the videos. There should be a complainant. But sadly, nobody wants to become a complainant as revealing one's identity is risky," she says.

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"I urge the Supreme Court to put in place a public-friendly system where the public can report such videos anonymously.

The Supreme Court sought the view of the central government to form an agency with pan-India jurisdiction to act on rape videos. The Supreme Court sought the view of the central government to form an agency with pan-India jurisdiction to act on rape videos.

The Ministry of Home Affairs must have a taskforce to exclusively deal with sexual offences. There should also be a national sexual offenders registry so that a tab can be kept of repeat offenders," said Krishnan. Krishnan has told the court that from most videos it was clear that it was not the offender's first rape.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry said in an affidavit that it has initiated steps to set up 150 specialised units to investigate crimes against women. "In order to tackle cyber crimes comprehensively, MHA has already set up an expert committee to recommend a roadmap for tackling the menace," it said. As per the expert committee recommendation, a proposal has been initiated to set up Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.

Krishnan has told the court that from most videos it was clear that it was not the offender's first rape.

Not first time



"The comfort with which he goes about it...while one performs the heinous act, the other two holds her legs tight and closes her mouth? while another man films it. In another video, spanning 8.5 minutes, a girl is gangraped by five culprits who are seen smiling, cracking jokes, making the video and taking photos while they go about sexually assaulting the victim," she says.

Krishnan herself had been gang raped by eight men when she was 15 years old after which she launched her NGO.