Supreme Court says Sahyog Portal can serve as foundation for national database to detect and remove child sexual exploitation material

Key facts

• On October 15, 2026, a Supreme Court bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran said the Union government's Sahyog Portal could provide the foundation for a national Hash & URL List Database to detect and remove child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) across online platforms.
• The proposed database would contain verified digital fingerprints (hashes) and URLs of CSEAM, with each entry verified by at least three trained human analysts, and would store only digital identifiers and URLs, not the material itself.
• The court directed the Union government to frame guidelines and standard operating procedures to strengthen detection, removal and reporting of CSEAM, including amendments to the Information Technology Act and IT Rules where necessary.
• Platforms must promptly remove material matching a verified database entry, provide users a notice explaining the removal, and report CSEAM to Indian law enforcement authorities including the Special Juvenile Police Unit and local police, with removals reported within two hours.
• The constitutional validity of the Sahyog Portal has been challenged by parties including X Corp; the Karnataka High Court upheld it in September last year, and the Supreme Court stayed parallel challenges, including pleas in the Bombay High Court by Kunal Kamra, in August after a Union government transfer petition.
• The court asked the government to consider exemplary monetary penalties proportionate to the gravity and recurrence of violations and to disgorge revenue earned from CSEAM circulated through paywalls or subscriptions.
• The government must file an affidavit detailing compliance progress by the next hearing on December 10, 2026.