AMENDMENTS TO POCSO ACT

About:

• Cabinet has approved the Amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences, POCSO, Act, 2012 to discourage the trend of child sexual abuse by acting as a deterrent due to strong penal provisions incorporated in the Act.
  
  
• It will make punishment more stringent for committing sexual crimes against children including the death penalty.
  
  
• The amendments also provide for levy of fines and imprisonment to curb child pornography.
  
  
• The new definition of child pornography reads, “Any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child which include photographs, video, digital or computer generated image indistinguishable from an actual child and an image created, adapted or modified but appear to depict a child.”
  
  
• Neither Section 67 of the IT Act nor Section 293 of the Indian Penal Code define child pornography.