Man held for sharing child porn; social media users screened

At least eight offences were registered and a 22-year-old man was arrested here for allegedly uploading and circulating child pornography on social media, police said on Wednesday. The police on Tuesday arrested Sahib Shakti Modak for uploading pornographic videos and photographs of children, an official said.

As a part of 'Operation Black Face', a nationwide campaign against child pornography, the Mumbai police's crime branch received information about social media accounts, which were used to upload and circulate child porn, he said. The Cyber Police Station analysed the data shared on Facebook, Instagram, Google, Youtube, Twitter, WhatsApp and Imgur, he said.

At least eight offences under the Information and Technology Act 2008 were registered against users of social media accounts from which videos and photos were uploaded and shared, he said. The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children of America keeps a tab on child pornography across the world and shares information with certain countries through FBI, the official said.

According to the data from the National Crime Record Bureau, around 25,000 cases of child pornography have been reported till January this year and tip lines for 619 cases were received, he added..