Rajya Sabha will discuss soon panel's report on child porn

Expressing serious concern over the menace of child pornography, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday that the House will soon discuss a report by a panel on prevention of child pornography so as to enable suitable amendments to the existing laws or a new legislation on the issue.

New Delhi, March 17 Expressing serious concern over the menace of child pornography, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday that the House will soon discuss a report by a panel on prevention of child pornography so as to enable suitable amendments to the existing laws or a new legislation on the issue.

"Let us have some time during this session for discussion on the report and the ministries concerned should take note of those conclusions and then go ahead with making suitable amendments to law or (bring in) any new law," he said.

He asked Union Minister and Leader of the House, Thawar Chand Gehlot, to consult other members and come up with a date when the issue can be taken up for discussion along with what all measures the central government has taken and what needs to be done, followed by proper implementation.

The panel headed by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh broadly addresses two main issues access of children to pornographic material and circulation of porn material on the social media showing abuse of children.

Naidu said that the committee had submitted a very meaningful report and that it should be discussed in the ongoing session.

The Chair was responding after the issue was raised during Zero Hour by BJP lawmaker Kailash Soni.

Soni said that the Rajya Sabha had expressed deep concern over child pornography and various initiatives that needed to be taken. The government had banned over 800 porn websites in recent months.

Referring to recent rape of minors in Dehradun, Bhopal and Patna, the BJP lawmaker said that investigations into these cases had revealed that all the accused, who too were minor, had watched pornography before committing the crime.

Soni said that some non-governmental organisations and newspapers have initiated campaigns against child porn but there was a need for a law with stronger penal provisions.

( With inputs from IANS )