New Delh, Sept. 21 -- Google has agreed to report content flagged as child sexual abuse material directly to Indian authorities, moving away from a global reporting system in which such cases are first sent to a US-based nonprofit before being forwarded to law enforcement in the country concerned.
The decision follows pressure from the central government on technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, to alert Indian agencies directly when such material is linked to India. Officials have raised concerns that routing reports through an intermediary can delay action, particularly when a child may be in immediate danger.
A Google spokesperson said the company "invests significantly to detect, deter, remove, and report child sexual abuse material", adding that the proposed arrangement is part of its "ongoing discussions with the government of India".
For years, Google parent Alphabet and Meta have reported suspected child sexual abuse material to the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). The nonprofit then sends the reports to relevant law enforcement agencies in the countries involved.
Indian officials have told technology platforms that the existing process can cost valuable time because reports must pass through NCMEC before reaching Indian police, according to two government sources cited by Reuters. Google's move follows a similar decision by Meta last week after weeks of friction with the Indian government. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also apologised last month over the spread of child sexual abuse material on the company's platforms.
India is the largest market by users for both Google's YouTube and Meta's Facebook, making the reporting arrangements particularly significant for the companies.
The scale of the issue is reflected in NCMEC's CyberTipline, which received more than 21.3 million reports worldwide of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2025. Technology and law enforcement authorities in the US, European Union and elsewhere have also pushed platforms to improve the speed of detection and reporting, although the US nonprofit remains a key international clearing house for such reports.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.