New Delhi: Aiming to curb the growing menace of child por-nography, the government has approved amendm-ents to the Protection of Children from Sexual Off-ences (POCSO) Act and introduced stringent mea-sures to check the circulation of child pornography and the administration of hormones to attain early sexual maturity.
The Union Cabinet had cleared the amendments in its meeting held on December 27. The move comes after the Centre had earlier banned and blocked websites promoting pornography, especially related to children.
Briefing reporters, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said that children should be protected from sexual offe-nces and the Cabinet has approved amendments to various sections of the POCSO Act.
“This is a wholesome initiative whereby the entire POCSO architecture is not only strengthened but also enlarged so that artificial medicines or hormones could not be abused to kill the childliness of a child,” he said.
An unfortunate thing was going on in the country — that children were being administered hormones to make them artificially majors, the minister added. The related provision of the POCSO Act, Section 9, has been made more stringent, Mr Prasad said.
The POCSO Act, 2012 was enacted to protect chi-ldren from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography with due regard for safeguarding the interest and well-being of children.
The Act defines a child as any person below eighteen years of age, and regards the best interests and welfare of the child as a matter of importance at every stage, to ensure the healthy physical, emotional, intellectual and social development of the child.
