Social Media Groups with over 50,000 Members Share Child Pornography in Kerala, Interpol Helps Probe

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after Kerala police arrested 12 persons for uploading and downloading videos and photographs related to child pornography, state additional police chief on Monday said there are about 7 to 8 social media groups on their radar.

Additional Director General of Police Manoj Abraham, who’s also the nodal officer of Kerala Police Cyberdome which monitors cybercrimes, said that the problem of online child pornography is rampant in the state.

“Last year, three raids were conducted by the Kerala police in this regard and 38 accused have been arrested. The latest raids conducted on October 12, about 12 people, including one minor, were arrested for viewing and promoting child pornography online,” he said.

"The problem is rampant. Even now we have major groups with about 50,000 members operating and sharing child pornography. We are finding some deterrence after the raids. From yesterday till today about 25,000 have exited the group."

"A fear psychosis is there and that is what we also. Still, there are people who are continuing this, it is a psychological problem also. Pedophiles basically do not feature in any other crime so they don't come into the police radar at all. They are online and have no criminal background at all," said Manoj Abraham.

The officer further said that some social media groups are very big with worldwide penetration while there are some specifically from Kerala. Considering the gravity of the situation, Kerala police made this into a 24/7 monitoring, he added.

“The next step is the identification of the victims. Interpol has agreed to train Kerala police on how to do identify victims without causing many psychological problems to them,” he said.

Manoj Abraham said, "We have to save the victims. Many are not even aware of this, some might be still exploited and the cases would not have come to light. The videos and photos shared range from children aged six years and above."

The Kerala police have a special unit CCSE( Counter Child Sexual Exploitation) which is dealing with preventing online child exploitation and child pornography. The unit is working in close contact with the Interpol, Crimes against Children Unit and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC).

Kerala Police is using Interpol software to identify the culprits. This software helps to find the correct IP address even while using an encrypted medium.

Over the last two years, police were getting inputs from Interpol about the rampant child pornography in Kerala. They identified after they found Malayalam calendars and newspapers lying in the background of pictures and videos.