Digital child abuse, the danger of AI-based exploitation (THE HINDU)
R ecently, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology of the British Government, along with the AI Safety Institute (now called the AI Security Institute), released the first-ever International AI Safety Report 2025 (updated February 18, 2025). It flags the imminent risk of the generation, the possession, and the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Additionally, the United Kingdom is making the first legislative attempt to target the threats posed by AI tools that can generate CSAM. CSAM refers to material (audio, video, and images) that depicts a sexually explicit portrayal of a child.
In a similar vein, the World Economic Forum, in a 2023 paper, highlighted how generative AI can create life-like images, especially of children. Moreover, the Internet Watch Foundation, in its report released in October 2024, underscored the proliferation of CSAM on the open web. The Government of India must amend existing laws to address the emerging threats and ensure long-term effectiveness.
Recent developments
The upcoming U.K. legislation will make it illegal to possess, create, or distribute AI tools that can generate CSAM. Moreover, it will be illegal to possess paedophile manuals that may guide individuals in using AI tools to generate CSAM.
This marks a progressive shift from an ‘accused-centric’ and ‘act-centric’ to a ‘tool-centric’ approach in dealing with these abhorrent crimes.
The existing laws focus entirely on ‘who’ has done ‘what’, placing less or no emphasis on the ‘tool/medium’ used to commit the said ‘act.’ For instance, the Protection of Children Act 1978 criminalises taking, distributing, and possessing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child pornography incidents as of April 2024. In 2019, the NCRB signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), USA to receive tip-line reports on CSAM. As of March 2024, 69.05 lakh cyber tip-line reports have been shared with the States and Union Territories concerned. The statistics underscore the gravity of CSAM as a serious threat to a child’s right to life and dignity in India.
Presently, Section 67B of the IT Act 2000 punishes those who publish or transmit material in electronic form depicting children in sexually explicit acts. Furthermore, Sections 13, 14, and 15 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) prohibit using children for pornographic purposes, storing child pornography in any form, and using a child for sexual gratification. Additionally, Section 294 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita penalises the sale, distribution, or public exhibition of obscene materials, while Section 295 makes it illegal to sell, distribute, or exhibit such obscene objects to children. However, the existing legislative framework lacks adequate safeguards to deal with the AI-generated CSAM.
A plan to follow
The existing legislative and policy framework in India needs to adapt to futuristic challenges, by making suitable changes.
First, as proposed by the NHRC Advisory in October 2023, the definition of ‘child pornography’ under the POCSO Act must be replaced with the phrase ‘CSAM’ to make it expansive.
Second, the term ‘sexually explicit’ under Section 67B of the IT Act must be defined to enable the real-time identification and blocking of CSAM.
Third, the definition of ‘intermediary’ under the IT Act must expressly include Virtual Private Networks, Virtual Private Servers, and Cloud Services to impose statutory liability on them to comply with the CSAM-related provisions in Indian laws.
Fourth, statutory amendments are needed to integrate the risks arising from emerging technological advancements.
Fifth, the Government of India must pursue the adoption of the UN Draft Convention on ‘Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technology for Criminal Purposes’ by the UN General Assembly.
Notably, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology proposed the Digital India Act 2023, currently in pipeline, to replace the two-decade-old IT Act. Therefore, and lastly, the proposed Digital India Act must draw inspiration from the U.K’s upcoming legislation to include the provisions specifically targeting AI-generated CSAM.
It’s Tariff War! India Sets Up Control Room (ECONOMIC TIMES)
Govt likely to avoid knee-jerk reactions, deal with issue through trade pact with US
New Delhi: India has set up a control room to monitor the reciprocal tariffs to be announced by US President Donald Trump late Wednesday even as the government is likely to avoid any kneejerk reactions and deal with the is sue through the trade pact the two nations are negotiating.
Senior government officials are keeping a close watch on the developments as they prepare various scenarios to gauge the impact on the Indian economy.
“A control room has been set up to keep a watch on developments related to tariffs,” said an official. Though there is no clarity on the way the tariffs would be imposed, India is preparing for various sce narios whether the levies are sectoral or country specific India will also keep tabs on how the tariffs are calculated and imposed on its competitors, or if any secondary tariffs.
Trump Monday said India will be “dropping its tariffs very substantially” as he prepares to announce reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he has termed Liberation Day.
India and the US are also engaged in talks for a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) as New Delhi expects to escape retaliatory action de spite Trump repeatedly naming India as a country with “highest tariff” and a “tariff abuser”.
New Delhi has communicated to the US trade representative that any discussions on import duty conces sions should be done through the BTA route only While the visiting USTR team last week didn’t commit anything on India’s request, they said that the message would be con- veyed to the White House as the final decision would be made there.
Assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch was in India from March 26 to 29 to discuss the BTA.
The joint statement issued on Saturday after the talks did not mention reciprocal tariffs.
HIGH-VALUE METAL EXPORTS TO US TO CONTINUE
Steel Dumping by China, Japan, South Korea Likely: SAIL Chief
New Delhi: India’s high-value
steel exports to the US will conti- nue even after imposition of re- ciprocal tariffs but it could face dumping of the metal from Chi- na, South Korea and Japan, Steel Authority of India Ltd chair- man Amarendu Prakash said.
Prakash also made a case for urgent imposition of safeguard duty to shield the domestic steel industry from this dumping.
“Tariffs may not affect the criti cal components or steel pro- ducts flowing to the US (from In- dia)… Prices will go up but the US will continue to import those items,” Prakash said, adding that manufacturing capacities will take time to come up there.
On March 12, US President Do- nald Trump announced the im position of up to 25% tariff on imports of steel and aluminium from all countries.
India exported 95,000 tonnes of finished ste- el to the US worth 1,924 crore in FY24.
He noted that the US move may change the trade flows. “That will mean Asian countrie s-China, South Korea, Japan- -that are exporting to Europe, that steel becomes free and will be floating around in the world. This floating trade might come to India,” he said.