Mental health and legal implications of child pornography during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: “How safe are our children?”

Abstract

India has a global ranking of the secondlargestchild population and has been ranked65th among 80 countries, thereby presentingchild safety concerns. (Sharma, 2020). Every15 minutes, a child is sexually exploited inIndia, according to the BBC report (2017).Growing digitalization proliferates children'svulnerability to harm (UNICEF, 2020).Sexual exploitation causes wounds to a childwhich can never be healed. Child pornographyis defined as ‘Any visual depiction of sexuallyexplicit conduct involving a minor (personsless than 18 years old)’ (Department of Justice, 2017). According to the Protectionof Children from Sexual Offences Act in India, it refers to ‘any visual depiction ofsexually explicit conduct involving a childwhich includes a photograph, video, digitalor computer - generated imag eindistinguishable from an actual child and animage created, adapted or modified butappear to depict a child’ (POCSO, 2019).Around the globe, the ratio of onlineuploading of child sexual abuse materialranked highest in India; which raises theconcerns towards the safety of the childrenduring the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.Many researchers provide data regarding theexploitation of children by their familymembers, close relatives, and neighborsinvolving in this heinous crime (Sharma,2020).