Meta to share child safety information directly with Indian agencies

Meta Platforms LLC, the parent firm of Instagram and Facebook, will share child sexual abuse material (CSAM) reports with Indian law enforcement in addition to the U.S.-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the company said on Tuesday. Indian agencies have for years already had access to CSAM reports from Meta and other U.S.-based technology companies, following an MoU in 2019 between the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and NCMEC.

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Now, the information will be shared directly by Meta with Indian agencies. “As on 31.03.2024, more than 69.05 lakh Cyber Tip-line reports have been shared with States/UTs concerned,” Union Minister of Women and Child Development Annpurna Devi had informed the Rajya Sabha in 2024. “Protecting children on our platforms is a priority for us and we are committed to working with the government to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are held responsible,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

Cybercrime portal

“To collectively strengthen our efforts to combat this harm, Meta will now report child safety matters directly to the Cyber crime portal managed by I4C,” the spokesperson added, referring to the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, under the Union Home Ministry.

Meta has been scrutinised in recent weeks by the Union government and the National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) over news reports describing CSAM being served in ads on Instagram and Facebook. The firm had then said that while it screens all ads being posted by third parties on its platform, some bad actors are able to get such content posted anyway.

The Centre and NCPCR have held multiple meetings with Meta on the issue, and the child rights body has initiated an investigation based on an initial exchange of correspondence with the company.