New Delhi: The Supreme Court has given a big verdict on child pornography. The apex court said that downloading or watching child pornography is a crime under the POCSO Act. A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra gave this verdict.
The petition challenged the Madras High Court’s decision, which had said that merely downloading and viewing child pornography is not an offence under the POCSO Act and the Information Technology Act.
The Supreme Court suggested the Central Government to issue an ordinance to replace the term ‘child pornography’ with ‘child sexual exploitation and abuse material’. The apex court has also directed all courts not to use the term ‘child pornography’ anymore.