SC to hear on April 28 plea to prohibit sexually explicit content on OTT, social media platforms
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps to prohibit streaming of sexually explicit content on over the top (OTT) and social media platforms.
The plea has sought laying down of guidelines constituting a National Content Control Authority to prohibit sexually explicit content on these platforms.
According to the top court's cause list of April 28, the petition is slated to come up for hearing before a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih.
The plea claimed there were pages or profiles on social media sites that were disseminating pornographic materials without any filter and various OTT platforms were streaming content that also has potential elements of child pornography.
"Such sexually deviant material pollute the minds of youth, children and even grown up persons which gives rise to perverted and unnatural sexual tendencies thereby leading to an increase in the crime rate," it said.
The plea said if left unchecked, the unregulated spread of obscene material could have severe consequences on societal values, mental health and public safety.
It claimed the petitioners have taken numerous steps by sending representations or complaints to the competent authorities, however, the same have yielded no effective result.
"It is the need of the hour that the state must uphold its constitutional duty to safeguard public morality, protect vulnerable populations, and ensure that the digital space does not become a breeding ground for deviant behaviour," the plea said.
It said affordability and widespread penetration of internet has made explicit materials readily available to users of all ages without any checks.
It has sought a direction to the Centre to stop access to social media and OTT platforms until these platforms formulate a mechanism to ensure that all pornographic content is made inaccessible, especially to children and minors in India.
The plea has urged the top court to constitute a committee headed by a retired apex court judge and consisting of eminent experts in the field to oversee and certify for publishing or streaming contents on OTT and social media platforms on the lines of the Central Board of Film Certification until a law is enacted to regulate it.
It has also sought to constitute an expert committee of reputed psychologists recognised by the Rehabilitation Council of India and other experts to conduct a nationwide study and submit a report to evaluate the adverse impact of sexually explicit content on those consuming such content and its after effects on society at large.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
