New Delhi, Sep 15: Amid a government crackdown on child sexual abuse and other harmful content online, Meta has agreed to report child safety-related matters directly to the cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C). A Meta spokesperson said protecting children on its platforms is a priority for the company and added, “We're committed to working with the government to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are held responsible.”

“To collectively strengthen our efforts to combat this harm, Meta will now report child safety matters directly to the cybercrime portal managed by I4C,” the spokesperson said. US-headquartered Meta is the first major tech intermediary to commit to establishing a direct reporting pipeline to Indian law enforcement, as the Centre pushes social media platforms to strengthen safeguards and improve accountability.

As of now, Meta reports child safety cases to the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Earlier on Tuesday, government sources said Meta had agreed to report child safety-related matters to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

The sources said online safety of children is a “fundamental principle” for any social media platform operating in India and is absolutely “non-negotiable”. In July, the government had issued a notice to Meta over Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting or facilitating access to CSEAM and demanded a detailed explanation. Multiple rounds of discussions with Meta’s top executives followed, during which the IT Ministry made it unequivocally clear that such content constitutes a violation and cannot be covered by safe-harbour protection.

Earlier this month, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) summoned the Managing Director and Head of Meta India in connection with its inquiry into alleged advertisements related to child sexual exploitative and abuse material (CSEAM) on the platform.