Hyderabad, Dec 15: For over an hour on Wednesday afternoon, a police building in Hyderabad's Old City area was converted into a counselling zone for nearly 65 young Hyderabadis caught watching porn. Parents were also invited. All the children were boys; some were as young as 11.
Police sources say that they tailed the teens after parents complained that their children were spending inordinate amounts of time at cyber cafes claiming that they needed internet access to do their homework.
Salma Sultana, a home-maker, said her son would take money from her, saying he needed to download material from the internet for school. "I did not know what was happening but he would be away for a long time,'' she said.
A series of complaints like Salma's led to the police searching nearly 100 internet cafes where they found children browsing adult-only sites. About 30 cases have been filed against the owners of internet cafes involved; the charges range from not having security cameras on location to allowing minors to watch porn.
At the counseling session, the police asked parents to watch their children's after-school activity more closely. They also said they would involve schools in helping out with net-nannying.
The police is particularly concerned that many of the children appeared to be watching a large amount of violence, including ISIS propaganda material like filmed beheadings.
"We are keeping up our vigil because we see this as a critical area for youngsters to get diverted into undesirable activity," senior official Satyanarayana said.
In some parts of the session, younger children giggled and said they were playing video games when the police found them. Some said that they were caught watching porn the first or second time they attempted it. A 16-year-old who is a school dropout said he was watching music videos on YouTube and was incorrectly collated in the group that allegedly logged on for porn.
At least a few parents were initially awkward about acknowledging their children's transgressions, but soon loosened up and shared the difficulty of internet monitoring.
Quddus, who works as a salesperson in a clothes showroom, said the counselling would not have been his first choice, but he was glad to have participated in it. "I first wanted to hit him. That was my first instinct. Then I thought, I need to talk to him. I am glad the Hyderabad police did this drive to wean children away from all this.
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