CYBER POR NO GR AP HY

INTRODUCTION:
•  Cyberpornography is the act of using cyberspace to
create, display, distribute, import, or publish
pornography or obscene materials, especially
materials depicting children engaged in sexual acts
with adults.

• Cyberpornography is a criminal offense, classified as

causing harm to persons
• ACCORDING TO STUDIES, SEX INDUSTRY INCLUDING
PORNOGRAPHY, IS ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST
PROFITABLE INDUSTRIES IN THE WORLD.
• Pornography industry is bigger than the top
technology companies combined: Microsoft,
Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, apple, Netflix and
Earthlink.
• Cyber Pornography has become a global problem. The
government has decided to ban 827 websites that possess
pornographic content following the order of Uttarakhand High
Court. However, the people especially the youngsters, are so
addicted to cyberporn that they try different means like VPN,
DNS Server Change, or downloading Opera Mini that has
inbuilt VPN activation, to view cyberporn.
PORNOGRAPHY
• The word pornography is derived from two Greek roots, i.e.
“Porne and graphos”. The word “porne” means prostitute,
harlot or female captive, and the word “graphos” means
“writing about” or “description of”.

• In a legal sense, Pornography means “obscenity”.

Pornographic includes any video, pictures or movies that
contain sexually explicit acts that are considered indecent by
the public.
• In the modern era, the concept of pornography has been
widened. Pornography has now been categorized into
softcore pornography and hardcore pornography. The only
point of difference between softcore pornography and
hardcore pornography is that softcore pornography does not
depict penetration, while hardcore pornography depicts
penetration.
CYBER PORNOGRAPHY
• Cyber Pornography means the publishing, distributing or
designing pornography by using cyberspace. The technology
has its pros and cons and cyber pornography is the result of
the advancement of technology. With the easy availability of
the Internet, people can now view thousands of porn on their
mobile or laptops, they even have access to upload
pornographic content online. 
OBSCENITY AND PORNOGRAPHY
• Obscenity and Pornography are often used synonymously. But
it should be noted that obscenity is a wider concept than
pornography. Obscenity means anything which is immoral
and against the sentiments of people, whereas pornography
refers to the act of causing sexual excitement through films,
pictures or books. Thus, pornography is just a part of
obscenity. 
HISTORY OF CYBER PORNOGRAPHY
Early 1990’s
• February 1993- The internet is made public.
• March 1993- The largest pornography investigation in history
begins.
• 1995- A study is conducted that said that about 80% of internet
usage is from pornography.
Late 1990’s
• 1996- The Communication Decency Act (CDA) is created.
• 1996- The Association of Sites Advocating Child protection
(ASACP) is created.
Late 1990’s
• 1996- The Communication Decency Act (CDA) is created.
• 1996- The Association of Sites Advocating Child protection
(ASACP) is created.
In 2000’s
• 2004- China attempts to ban internet pornography
• 2007- International child pornography investigation has been
done
• 2009- Media Streaming is improved & bandwidth costs drop
• 2015- India government decides to ban 286 porn sites.
EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY
Many surveys reveal that a person who is addicted to pornography
has a change in attitude towards himself and his family.
• Pornography which is usually viewed in private often leads to
deception in marriage and which may, later on, affect their family
life.
• It may lead to adultery, prostitution and many unreal expectations
that can result in dangerous promiscuous behaviour.
• Pornography may lead to addiction, escalation, desensitization
and acting out sexually by one person.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
There are various legislations to regulate Cyber pornography
in India, like the Information Technology Act, 2000, Indian Penal
Code, Indecent Representation of Women’s act and Young
Person’s (Harmful Publication) Act. The provisions related to
cyber pornography under these acts are discussed below.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000
Cyber pornography is banned in many countries but legalized
in some. Cyber Pornography is neither banned nor legalised
under the IT Act, 2000. The IT Act prohibits the production and
distribution of cyber pornography but does not prohibit the
viewing or downloading of pornographic content if it is not
child pornography.
• Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 makes
the following acts punishable with imprisonment up to 3
years and a fine up to 5 lakhs:
1. Publication– It includes uploading of pornographic content on a
website, WhatsApp group or any other digital portal where third
parties can have access to such pornographic content.
2. Transmission– It means to send obscene material to any person
electronically.
3. Causing to be published or transmitted– It is a comprehensive
terminology which would end up making the intermediary portal
liable, using which the offender has published or transmitted such
obscene content. The Intermediary Guidelines under the
Information Technology Act put an onus on the
Intermediary/Service Provider to exercise due diligence to ensure
that their portal is not being misused.
Section 67A of the Information Technology Act makes
publication, transmission and causing to be transmitted and
published any material containing sexually explicit act or
conduct punishable with imprisonment up to 5 years and a fine
up to ₹10 lakhs.
Following conclusions can be made by understanding the
above provisions:
1. Viewing Cyber pornography is legal in India. Merely
downloading and viewing such content does not amount to an
offence.
2. Publication of pornographic content online is illegal.
3. Storing Cyber pornographic content is not an offence.
4. Transmitting cyber pornography via instant messaging,
emails or any other mode of digital transmission is an offence.
EXCEPTIONS
• The section 67A of the IT Act does not prohibit books,
pamphlets, magazines or pictures which are created for
educational purposes or which is kept for religious
purposes. Thus, the section does not prohibit the preserving
of sculptures that are of historical importance. 
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
• Section 67B of the IT Act, 2000 makes it publishing,
transmitting, viewing or downloading child pornography
illegal. The fact that the internet has made child
pornography more accessible to the distributors, as well as
the collectors, cannot be denied.
• According to Section 67B, any person who has not attained
the age of 18 years is a child. It further states that child
pornography can be committed in the following five ways:
• By publishing or transmitting or causing to publish or transmit
any material electronically that depicts the children engaged in
a sexually explicit act or conduct.
• By depicting children in an obscene or sexually explicit manner.
• By inducing children to online relationship with one or more
children for and on a sexually explicit act, or in a manner that
may offend a reasonable adult on the computer resource.
• By facilitating child abuse online.
• By recording own abuse or that of others pertaining to sexually
explicit act with others.
EXCEPTIONS
• The section does not prohibit the books, pamphlets, magazines
or pictures which are created for educational force or which is
kept for religious purposes. Thus, sexology (the scientific study
of human sexuality or sexual behaviour) is not prohibited under
this section. Similarly, if a photograph of a child is used to tell
about the anatomy of a child then it won’t constitute an offence
under this section.
WHY IS CYBER PORNOGRAPHY DIFFICULT TO
REGULATE?
It isn’t as easy as it seems to regulate Cyber Pornography. It is
really difficult to regulate Cyber Pornography. Some of the
reasons for the same are:
• The Internet is a global network, connecting various
computers. It is highly decentralized i.e. no single entity has
control over the content published on the Internet.
• People can use proxy servers to access pornographic content
on the Internet. Thus, they can even access banned websites
by using proxy servers.

• There are a large number of servers on the Internet that

contains pornographic content. It is highly difficult to regulate
such a large number of servers.
• Adult websites are not the only way to download porn. There
are other communication protocols that the Internet users
follow to download the pornographic content, say, for
example, if a website is banned, the users may download porn
by using Bit-Torrent technology. Similarly, peer-topper
networks such as eMule or Bulletin Boards can be used to
download and share files, including porn.