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New Delhi: Raising serious concerns over the growing risks posed by digital platforms, the 50th Chief Justice of India, Dr D.Y. Chandrachud, on Saturday highlighted the urgent need to address the rising threat of online gaming misuse and child exploitation in the digital space.
As per the Dynamite News correspondent, he was addressing an eminent gathering as the Chief Guest at the 32nd Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lecture on the theme ‘Ethics of Public Life in an Age of Technology’ in the national capital.
Emphasising the deep societal impact of unregulated digital content, Dr Chandrachud pointed to the alarming spread of pornography and emerging threats like deepfakes. He observed that technological advancements have enabled content to penetrate deeply into private spaces, often without adequate safeguards.
“There is an industry in our age that has done what no invading army ever managed. It has entered every home, every phone, and every adolescent's bedroom and it has done so legally,” he said, referring to the proliferation of pornographic content.
Highlighting the dangers of artificial intelligence-driven manipulation, he added, “I speak of pornography, and of its newest, most monstrous child: the deepfake the use of artificial intelligence to take the face of a real woman, often a schoolgirl, often without her knowledge, and place it onto a body in scenes she never consented to.”
Citing a disturbing real-world example, Dr Chandrachud referred to an incident in September 2023 in Almendralejo, Spain, where over 20 schoolgirls, some as young as 11, were victims of deepfake pornographic images allegedly created by their own classmates.
“The pictures had spread across the town’s phones before the girls had even finished their breakfast,” he noted, underlining the speed and scale at which such content can proliferate.
He stressed that such developments expose serious gaps between technological advancement and legal preparedness, calling for greater attention to child safety, ethical accountability, and stronger regulatory mechanisms in the digital ecosystem.
Dr Chandrachud’s remarks come amid increasing global concerns over online safety, misuse of gaming platforms, and the rapid rise of AI-driven content manipulation, which continue to challenge existing legal and policy frameworks.
