Google has agreed to establish a direct channel for reporting cases involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to Indian law enforcement agencies, marking a shift from the existing system in which such reports were routed through the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Google said it continues to invest in detecting, preventing, removing and reporting child sexual abuse material. The company is expected to operationalise the direct sharing of information with India’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Government sought faster reporting
The move follows discussions between the Indian government and major technology companies over the need to speed up reporting of online child abuse cases.
Indian officials had raised concerns that routing information through an overseas organisation could slow down the response, particularly in cases where a child may be facing an immediate threat. Direct reporting would allow Indian agencies to receive relevant information without waiting for it to pass through an additional reporting channel.
The development comes shortly after Meta announced a similar arrangement under which information related to child sexual abuse cases in India would be shared directly with Indian law enforcement agencies.
2.13 crore reports received globally
The scale of online child exploitation remains significant. NCMEC’s CyberTipline received 21.3 million reports in 2025, including 19.5 million reports classified as child sexual abuse material. It also received around 1.4 million reports concerning online enticement of children.
NCMEC said more than 77 percent of its reports were referred outside the US, with the organisation working with law enforcement agencies in 170 countries and territories.
What Indian law says
Under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, offences involving sexually explicit material depicting children, including creating, transmitting or facilitating such material, can attract imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to ₹10 lakh for a first conviction. A subsequent conviction can attract up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine.
The government’s focus is now on shortening the distance between technology platforms and Indian investigators, particularly when reports indicate that a child could be in immediate danger.
