The Supreme Court has said that to keep children away from obscene or adult nature material available on the internet, verification of age through Aadhaar number should be considered. The court made this comment while hearing the case in which it is considering the issue of objectionable material being presented by comedians and podcasters.
This matter reached the Supreme Court in February this year. Comedian Ranveer came to the Allahabadia Supreme Court after FIRs were registered in several states for the obscene comedy done in the show ‘India’s Got Latent’. In a similar case, cases were also filed against comedians Ashish Chanchlani, Apoorva Makhija, Jaspreet Singh and Samay Raina. He had also approached the Supreme Court for relief.
During the hearing, the court granted relief to Ranveer from arrest, but after issuing a severe rebuke. In the hearing held on February 18, while widening the scope of the case, he had said, ‘We cannot ignore this important subject. What is happening on YouTube channel and other platforms? The government should tell what it is doing regarding such matters?
On Thursday, November 27, the case was heard by the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. The court said, ‘Many times a warning comes before such content, but it is insufficient. Clear warnings and appropriate controls are necessary. We suggest that after the alert plays for a few seconds, the age is verified through Aadhaar or some other means. Only after this the program should start.
In the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central Government, admitted that there is still something lacking regarding the regulation of user generated content (content created by oneself and posted on one’s YouTube channel/page). On this the Chief Justice said, ‘Will someone create his own YouTube channel and upload anything on it without any restrictions? This can’t work. There is a need to form an autonomous regulatory body, which can control this.
After this, the Solicitor General said that guidelines are being made regarding objectionable content on the Internet and social media. On this the court said that the government should make those guidelines public. People’s opinion should also be taken on this subject. After this they should be finalized. The next hearing of the case will be after 4 weeks.