Launch of spl unit helps TGCSB nab over 400 for child porn in 2025

Hyderabad: Following the launch of a child protection unit to curb Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSEAM) at the TG Cyber Security Bureau in Jan last year, Telangana police registered 869 cases related to online child sex abuse in 2025. This resulted in a significant rise in arrests made by police in connection with CSEAM cases – from 37 in 2024 to 423 in 2025. The accused were arrested for viewing, sharing, storing or uploading child abuse content.This special unit was inaugurated by chief minister A Revanth Reddy during the SHIELD event organised by TGCSB. In the absence of this system, police could register just 37 cases between 2023 and 2024.
The data was shared during the ongoing "Fraud Ka Full Stop" awareness campaign being conducted by the cyber security bureau with The Times of India has its official media partner. This week they are discussing five different frauds related to – child sexual abuse, matrimonial sites, cyber stalking, cyber bulling, dating apps."The unit helped us streamline the process of tracking down where the content was being generated and how it was being circulated subsequently. We found that most of the CSEAM content was traded on Telegram and other social media platforms. Apart from that, accused also used inactive websites to upload content on them," said an investigating officer from the Bureau.Officials shared how this helped them rescue a minor girl in few months ago. In June 2025, the TSCSB team also nabbed 15 people — one of the biggest crackdowns of 2025 — for viewing and circulating CSEAM content. It included a student from IIT- Kharagpur."We found that 70% of the child pornography circulated in Telangana originated from foreign countries. The remaining content was also not related to our state and was sourced from other places in the country," said a bureau official.Cops said that they have been taking action largely based on alerts — most of which come from security agencies in the US. They share the concerned URL from where the content is uploaded or shared. "We get tip-offs from the agencies in the US who share the details of the person sharing the content on different platforms. If the person is from Telangana, based on the leads we get, we use technical details to catch the accused. Most of the accused share the content after sourcing them from various platforms," an officer said.Early this week, two people — residents of Manchal and Saroornagar — were arrested by Rachakonda police for buying and circulating child abusive content among their social circles. Similarly, two more persons arrested in Khammam."TGCSB officials use different Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools including application Red Panda bot which helps in giving leads in identification of CSEAM content, source of content and who are recirculating it," TGCSB director Shikha Goel told TOI.She stated that as per Indian laws and a Supreme court judgment dated Sept 2024, viewing, sharing, uploading to net, recording videos, taking photos, selling child sexual exploitative and abuse materiel is a punishable offence under Section 67-B IT Act and Sec 15 of POCSO Act. Anybody convicted for this offence can be punished for five years, with jail term going up to seven years in case the accused is a repeat offender.