NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court has asked the state legal services authority to create a program to educate teenagers as they are vulnerable to posting intimate content on social media without consent.While denying bail to an accused who allegedly had physical relations with a minor girl on the pretext of marriage and also videographed the same, the high court said there is a difference between “innocent, consensual, teenage love relationship” and “sexual abuse under threat, pressure, blackmailing and violence”.It pointed out that as per the FIR registered, the accused, Sakib, facing stringent sections of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, continued to have intercourse with the victim and blackmailed her by threatening to release her videos.”This court also notes that in a large percentage of cases of sexual assault received by this court, the victims have alleged that inappropriate videos or photographs of relationships are made by one of the parties and under threat of posting them on social media, minor girls are sexually abused. They do not understand or know how to deal with such situations. Therefore, in cases of sexual assault without consent or under some inducement, inappropriate videos and photographs are captured, which are used for a long time for blackmailing the victims and continuing the sexual abuse. This court has witnessed cases where young boys have been sexually abused, assaulted and have been victims of such blackmailing,” Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma noted in a recent order.While the accused argued that it was a case of adolescent love as he is 19 years old, while the girl is 17, the high court noted that as per the allegations, he continued to sexually abuse her, and when she wanted to end the relationship, he threatened to reveal everything to her parents.It requested the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to “formulate a programme whereby they may educate students, potential vulnerable victims and teenagers who may indulge in such crimes without knowing that posting such intimate content on social media without the consent of the person concerned is in violation of the law.”
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/sensitise-teenagers-on-posting-intimate-content-hc/articleshow/100220598.cms