Family & Marriage
Money & Property
Crimes & Violence
Police & Courts
Labour & Employment
Health & Environment
Citizen Rights & Constitution
Government & Elections
Media & Intellectual Property
Videos
Guides
Sample Forms
Statewise Information
General
Children
Women
LGBTQI+
Employees
Persons with Disabilities
Scheduled Castes & Tribes
Senior Citizens
Informal Workers
The law punishes different kinds of crimes if obscene material is shared or you face sexual harassment online:
Publishes or distributes obscene material online
If someone publishes or distributes obscene material online, it is considered a crime. For example, if someone publishes pictures of a naked woman. This is punishable1 with jail time of up to three years and a fine of up to five lakhs on first conviction, and jail time of up to five years and a fine of up to ten lakhs upon any subsequent conviction.
Publishes or distributes materials that display sexually explicit acts
Further, if someone publishes or distributes materials that display sexually explicit acts, it is also considered a crime. For example, if someone publishes a video of two people engaging in sexual intercourse without their permission, he may be punished under the law. This is punishable2 with jail time of up to five years and a fine of up to ten lakhs on first conviction, and jail time of up to seven years and a fine of up to ten lakhs upon any subsequent conviction.
Showing Pornographic Material
Showing pornographic material to a woman when she does not want to watch it is considered sexual harassment, and is a crime under the law.3 The punishment for this is jail time of up to three years or a fine or both.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Have a question you want to ask our legal experts?
Related Resources
Online Harassment and Violence against LGBTQ+ Persons
Ginka Madhuvan
June 29, 2023
My photos and my data was hacked through WhatsApp and doing harrassment in whatsapp to me and my family members contact list too and demanding money fot that soo help me
Alka Manral
July 8, 2024
Take the screenshots of the messages/photos/videos and document all evidence meticulously. Use WhatsApp’s reporting feature to report the offending messages and accounts. Go to the nearest police station and file a First Information Report (FIR). Mention all details of the incident including the nature of the harassment, the demands for money, and the stolen data.The applicable sections to your case are Sec 66 of Information Technology Act for internet-related offenses, , Sec 66C and Sec 66D of IT Act for impersonation ad identity theft. If the photos contain obsecenity, then Sec 67 of IT Act is applicable for transmitting such content. You can also file a complaint online through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal here.Inform your family members and other contacts about the situation so they are aware and do not respond to any suspicious messages. Additonally, consider increasing the security of your social media accounts. Make sure to use a password that is hard to crack, and enable two-factor authentication on all services that offer it.
Sikha
December 7, 2024
Take the screenshots of the messages/photos/videos and document all evidence meticulously. Use WhatsApp’s reporting feature to report the offending messages and accounts. Go to the nearest police station and file a First Information Report (FIR). Mention all details of the incident including the nature of the harassment, the demands for money, and the stolen data.The applicable sections to your case are Sec 66 of Information Technology Act for internet-related offenses, , Sec 66C and Sec 66D of IT Act for impersonation ad identity theft. If the photos contain obsecenity, then Sec 67 of IT Act is applicable for transmitting such content. You can also file a complaint online through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal here.Inform your family members and other contacts about the situation so they are aware and do not respond to any suspicious messages. Additonally, consider increasing the security of your social media accounts. Make sure to use a password that is hard to crack, and enable two-factor authentication on all services that offer it.
Suresh Fernandes
November 12, 2023
The person have used me physically and torcherd me a lot
santosh
November 14, 2023
dear sir / madam
there are various accounts on instagram , youtube who produces sexual short in order to get more views, i dont know how to file proper complain to get rid of these shorts/reels please help , if u want i submit list of these accounts producing such materials
Alka Manral
June 10, 2024
Firstly, it is important to note that you might be interpreting such videos a bit too extremely. If the reels are merely showcasing revealing clothes or supposedly “provocative” behaviour then this isn’t wrong or illegal.
In case such videos are showing actual sexual content then you can do the following:
1. Report the account on Instagram or Youtube. They will respond in a day or two and will temporarily or permanently deactivate such accounts to prevent them from spreading further.
2. Block these accounts if you are feeling uncomfortable due to them to ensure that you do not have to see their videos
3. File a suit under S.67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. This act punishes the publishing or sharing obscene or sexually explicit things with punishment upto 5 years and a fine upto 10 lakh rupees
Poulami Banerjee
December 14, 2023
A boy is calling me repeatedly and is harassing me and sending dirty dirty messages so please take immediate action against him.Repeatedly doing this from Telegram
Subhankari Rout
August 2, 2024
Someone created a fake account to abusing me . He/she messaging me with slangs and using really bad word for my body parts and for me also . I want to know the real person behind that fake id . And it’s affecting me a lot , affecting my mental health so I want a legal action .
Subhankari Rout
August 2, 2024
Someone created a fake account to abusing me . He/she messaging me with slangs and using really bad word for my body parts and for me also . He/she sending a dirty messages .I want to know the real person behind that fake id . And it’s affecting me a lot , affecting my mental health so I want a legal action
Manashi Naskar
August 15, 2024
Their is a guy named ( Ariyan chy ) on Facebook and he continued sending me nude images and usage bad words
pooja
October 25, 2024
one private channel telecast a video amd we aregiving them evidence of the statements but the opposite persoms arecome to the comment section and insulying lile we are porn stars. Please take an action.
Yash
October 27, 2024
A person has secretly recorded my video of my lower body and he is demanding rs 6000 from me to delete the video. I hereby would like to acknowledge that his insta I’d is vaibhav jangra 07 . I need quick support as the site claims 4 hours result . His isd portal address 142.356890.77.42 . I will ping the mobile location in form of pdf . I have also complaint to the cyber cell .