Telecom companies join hands with DoT to remove content related to sexual abuse of children

Telecom companies have decided to partner with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), to block and remove URLs which have content related to child sexual abuse. [caption id=“attachment_249444” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP Photo.[/caption] This comes in the **aftermath** of DoT’s directive to the internet service providers to remove 4,694 URLs. This list was provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Minister of Telecommunications, Manoj Sinha, according to the PTI, had issued instructions to block 1,791 URLs with such content in 2016 and 2017. These included Facebook pages and **YouTube**  videos as well. Sinha has reportedly said that while removing the concerned URL or website was possible, removing a specific content in a website was “technically” not “feasible”. According to the Economic Times, Vodafone and Tata Telecommunications claim to be regularly removing content related to child pornography. Vodafone reportedly also issues advisories on its website for safe internet use for both parents and children. Both the telcos have also joined hands with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to identify such content and report them to the concerned authorities. Apart from this, Vodafone along with the IWF is helping the government to use its resources to block the URLs which have child sexual abuse related content in them. Alphons Kannanthanam, MoS for Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had said that until 30 November, 587, 964, and 1,329 URLs of social media websites or specific web pages were blocked in 2015, 2016, and 2017 respectively.