Interpol reports over 2.4 million online child abuse cases in India between 2017-20

Interpol has reported a sharp rise of over 2.4 million online child sexual abuse cases in India between 2017-20, of which 80% of the victims were girls below the age of 14 years. Interpol’s data indicate that there has been a growth in CSAM content and consumers with .116 million queries on CSAM made on a single search engine.

These figures have prompted India’s central probe agency CBI to  start an operation to stop such abuse against children online and take action against the alleged peddlers of CSAM in India. These include having 50 online social media groups with 5,000 participants from across the globe who share and peddle CSAM being under the scanner, taking up the issue with social media companies and hosting facilities, coordinating with law enforcement agencies in other countries, carrying out searches in 77 locations across 14 states and arresting seven persons.