Interpol’s ICSE Initiative

In News 

• India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has joined the Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) initiative .

About International Child Sexual Exploitation database

• The ICSE database uses video and image comparison to analyse Child Sex Exploitation Material (CSEM) and make connections between victims, abusers and places. 
• The database avoids duplication of effort and saves precious time by letting investigators know whether a series of images has already been discovered or identified in another country, or whether it has similar features to other images.
• The image and video database is an intelligence and investigative tool, which allows specialized investigators to share data on cases of child sexual abuse.
• It helps victim identification specialists worldwide analyse and compare child sexual abuse images.
• INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation database holds more than 2.7 million images and videos and has helped identify 23,564 victims worldwide.

Significance for India 

• India reported over 24 lakh instances of online child sexual abuse from 2017 to 2020, with 80% victims being girls below the age of 14 years.
•  More than 60% unidentified victims were prepubescent, including infants and toddlers. 
  • Around 65% of unidentified victims were girls, but severe abuse images were more likely to have boys.
• It will allow India to collaborate with investigators in other countries for detecting child sex abuse online and identifying abusers, victims, and crime scenes from audio-visual clips using specialised software.
  • India is the 68th country to have access to this database and software.

India’s Efforts to  combat online child sex abuse

• In 2019, the CBI set up a special unit called the ‘Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/Investigation (OCSAE)’, for tracking and monitoring posting, circulation and downloads of CSEM online.
  • Based on intelligence developed by the unit, the CBI started a country-wide operation against the alleged peddlers of online CSEM in India last year. 

• Back in 2020, the cyber wing of the Maharashtra Police had acquired a software from Interpol to track child sex abuse captured on video and in photos.
• In 2019, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, a US-based non-profit organisation, had started sharing tip-offs about child sex abuse with Indian agencies. 

Source:IE