India Joins Interpol's Child Sexual Exploitation Database, Becomes 68th Country To Do So

India joined Interpol's International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database on July 8. It could now use audio-visual data to draw links between victims, abusers and crime scenes. With CBI, India's nodal agency for Interpol matters, joining the database, India became the 68th country to connect to it.

An Efficient Tool

The database, which allows specialised investigators to share information on cases of child sexual abuse, has proven to be an efficient intelligence and investigative tool. The investigators could nail down criminals by identifying victims and places of crime using the image and video comparison software.

According to Interpol, letting investigators know whether a set of pictures has previously been found or identified in another country avoids duplication of effort and saves a lot of time. It also specifies if the images have similar features to other images, as reported by News 18.

Notes and information could be exchanged between detectives from 68 countries worldwide.

"By analysing the digital, visual and audio content of photographs and videos, victim identification experts can retrieve clues, identify any overlap in cases and combine their efforts to locate victims of child sexual abuse," the Interpol website said.

Sexual Exploitation Of Children In India

National Crime Records Bureau's(NCRB) data, released in September 2021, stated that Uttar Pradesh topped the list of sexual offences against children. UP had reported 6,898 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act(POSCO) cases, followed by Maharashtra with around 5,687 cases, Madhya Pradesh with 5,648, Tamil Nadu with 3,090 and West Bengal with 2,657 cases, as reported by Hindustan Times.

In total, 47,221 cases of the POSCO Act were reported in 28 states and eight union territories across the country.

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