Focus on protecting children from abuse, cybercrimes, officials told

Vijayawada: Everyone should join hands to protect children from falling victims to cyber sexual attacks, said member-secretary of AP State Legal Service Authority and district and sessions judge Majji Babitha.

Addressing an awareness meeting on protecting children from sexual abuse jointly organised by a voluntary service organisation Indian Child Protection and State Legal Services Authority here on Friday, Judge Babitha said that the law-enforcement agencies, cybercrime department, members of Child Welfare Committee and educational institutions play a key role in the protection of children from cyber sexual atrocities.

Referring to the Supreme Court judgement, she said that the apex court barred from using the word ‘child pornography’ and directed the usage of ‘Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material’. The Supreme Court also stated that if the material was found in the computers or cell phones, it should be considered as a crime.

Judge Babitha underlined the importance of giving more training to the cybercrime officials and the police on dark web and the AI-based applications.

Sampoorna Behara of Indian Child Protection said that the educational institutions and the parents should keep an eye on the behaviour of the children and detect immediately if there was any change in them.

Parents should watch the mobile phones the children were using to find out whether they were victims of crimes. The criminals closely track the children to know if they use video games on their mobiles.

CID Cybercrimes SP K Krishna Prasanna appealed to people to immediately call toll-free number 1930 in case they find any crimes.

AP State Legal Services Authority joint secretary Dr H Amara Rangeswara Rao, Kiran Savanth and

Aditya of Indian Child Protection, police officers, district education officers, child welfare officers and others participated.