Toby Antony By

Express News Service

KOCHI: Paedophilia has always presented a tough case to crack for the enforcement authorities across the world. With the predators moving from streets and neighbourhoods to the more complex maze of the internet, the challenge to bring offenders before the law has become all the more difficult.

When Kerala Police formed a special campaign called Operation P-Hunt in January 2019 to ferret out those consuming and spreading child pornographic materials in the state, they had no clue about the number of people involved in it. What they discovered during the past 11 months of investigation had the world take notice. It also revealed the dark underbelly of the state’s internet usage.

Amit Bandre

Police have now established that a deep-rooted network is active in the state that uploads child pornographic materials through the Dark Net and circulates them through social chatting apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.“When we planned the Operation P-Hunt, we did not expect more than 10 persons to be involved in circulating child pornographic materials. But when we started tracking the child porn site users, even we were surprised. We tracked more than 500 persons who were watching and sharing child porn contents in the state. Some suspects are still under surveillance,” said Starmon Pillai, inspector of the Hi-Tech Cell.

Cyberdome, the state police’s cybersecurity centre that actively monitors social media networks, recently found out a Telegram Channel named Butterfly which has been actively circulating child porn contents among its Malayali users. The admin was identified as ‘MLPM’. He was managing 35 porn groups and the channel had 38,000 active members.

Alarmed by the gravity of the situation, police’s Child Sexual Exploitation Unit (CSE), which coordinated the Operation P-Hunt, is now looking to nab the big fishes who upload videos in Dark Net platforms for financial gains.

Operation P-Hunt has so far netted 38 persons from different parts of the state. Over 100 cases have been registered and more than 500 persons were monitored. Even now, Kerala Police have put over 200 persons under surveillance who are suspected to be watching and circulating child porn materials through social media channels.

As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, no arrests were recorded in 2016 and 2017 in the state for cyber pornography. “That does not mean there was no child pornography here. But the concerted efforts of the Child Sexual Exploitation Unit and Cyberdome revealed a wide network of people involved in online child pornography. This led to launch of Operation P-Hunt and the resultant arrests,” said Starmon.

Yet, officers admit that they have only discovered the tip of an ice-berg. Prime sources of child pornography are yet to be uprooted. Despite arrests, persons uploading child porn videos remain elusive.

Cyber experts said unearthing them would be a challenge as such videos are uploaded and downloaded from the Dark Net. Most uploads and circulation take place in Malappuram district even though only one person has so far been arrested from the district.

Nandakishore Harikumar, director and CEO of Kochi-based Technisanct, a cybersecurity agency which constantly monitors Dark Net and social media networks, said there are many porn networks where Malayalis are active subscribers. According to him, child porn is active in dark-web networks. “Most of the internet users are well aware of Tor and the anonymity it provides. There, individual identity can easily be masked to create login IDs. It will be hard to trace the identity of those with Protonmail IDs and use that to access a child porn domain on Tor network. Policing becomes tough as most of them use VPNs,” he said.

There are at least 100 or more active groups that share pictures of children through Telegram, he said. “The Cyberdome’s hunt for such groups helped police identify a few criminals. The steps taken by the government along with Interpol to identify and arrest criminals are fascinating,” he added.State police now regularly receive information from the National Crime Records Bureau about suspects circulating and watching child porn. Even social media apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have been flushing out child porn contents.

Dr Prakash Chandran, a well-known psychologist, has counselled survivors and persons addicted to child porn. He said a professional-level counselling can help in successful rehabilitation. “In most cases, both men and women accidentally start watching child porn videos. Later, it becomes an addiction. Only in personality disorder cases will rehabilitation be a difficult task,” he said.

On the other hand, survivors fearing isolation from society do not speak out about their ordeals. “Some survivors face trauma. They fear to mingle with society and like to live in isolation. They often cannot concentrate on studies. There were child porn cases in the past too, but more number of cases are now being reported,” he said.

Cyberdome unearths secretive channel

Cyberdome, which actively monitors social media networks, recently found out a Telegram Channel named Butterfly which has been actively circulating child porn contents among its Malayali users. The admin was identified as ‘MLPM’. He was managing 35 porn groups and the channel had 38,000 active members.

Deep-rooted network of crime

Police have now established that a deep-rooted network is active in the state

Members of the network upload child pornographic materials through the Dark Net and circulate them through social chatting apps like WhatsApp and Telegram

Child Sexual Exploitation Unit (CSE), which coordinated the Operation P-Hunt, is now looking to nab the big fishes who upload videos in Dark Net platforms for financial gains

Kerala Police have put over 200 persons under surveillance who are suspected to be watching and circulating child porn materials through social media channels

Most uploads and circulation take place in Malappuram district even though only one person has so far been arrested from the district

Experts said unearthing porn videos would be a challenge as they are uploaded from Dark Net

Legal provisions to counter child pornography

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act

Section 14: Whoever uses a child or children for pornographic purposes shall be punished with imprisonment of either description which may extend to five years and shall be liable to fine

Section 15: Any person who stores, for commercial purposes any pornographic material in any form involving a child shall be punished with imprisonment of either description which may extend to three years or with fine or with both

(The government has proposed an amendment to POCSO Act to curb the online spread of child pornography)

IT Act

Section 67B: Publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to D10 lakh and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to Rs 10 lakh

Cyberdom partners

Interpol

Five academic institutions

Six government agencies

12 NGOs

Students

Banks

Kerala State IT Mission

800 ethical hackers

250 mobile technicians