Meta has agreed to report child safety-related cases directly to the cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), amid increased government scrutiny of social media platforms over child sexual abuse material (CSAM), deepfakes and other harmful online content.

Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, three of India’s most widely used social media and messaging platforms. The company has introduced several safety measures for younger users, including stricter privacy settings, parental supervision tools and restrictions on interactions with unknown adults.

“Protecting children on our platforms is a priority for the company,” a Meta spokesperson said, adding that the company was committed to working with the government to hold perpetrators accountable. “To collectively strengthen our efforts to combat this harm, Meta will now report child safety matters directly to the cybercrime portal managed by I4C,” the spokesperson added.

Meta is the first major technology intermediary to commit to establishing a direct reporting channel with Indian law enforcement agencies for such cases. Until now, it has primarily reported suspected cases of child exploitation to the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Government sources said the online safety of children was a “fundamental principle” for every social media platform operating in India and was “non-negotiable”. They added that action would be taken against platforms that failed to adopt proactive measures to protect children online.

Meta and the Government of India have previously disagreed over content moderation, data protection and compliance with the Information Technology Rules, 2021. WhatsApp challenged the rules’ traceability requirement in court, arguing that it could undermine end-to-end encryption. The government, however, has repeatedly directed social media companies, including Meta, to remove unlawful content and strengthen their response to misinformation, deepfakes and other forms of online harm.

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