Meta has decided to report information about child sexual abuse to the relevant law enforcement authorities in India, government sources have said on Tuesday. The development comes as the government is stepping up its initiatives to make social media safer for kids.

The continued dialogue between the government and social media platforms regarding harmful content and online child safety led to the decision, according to government sources. Government officials said that “online safety of children is a fundamental principle for any social media to operate in India and it is ‘non-negotiable’.”

The settlement with Meta includes a commitment to report issues related to child safety to the relevant law enforcement authorities as a “first step” towards making social media platforms safer for children, they said.

More needs to be done, government sources said, adding that the government continues to work with other platforms to proactively identify and remove harmful content.

Meta happens to be the mother or father of social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads.

The government threatened to take action against social media platforms that fail to take steps to protect children.

The move against Meta was a part of a crackdown on the company in the wake of a growing focus on the presence of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM) on its platforms, especially Instagram.

Senior officials of the company appeared before the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on September 9 in response to its inquiries into possible advertisements for child sexual abuse cases on Instagram. The NCPCR had heard about the BBC Eye investigation on the matter.

The government’s investigation of the matter started back in July when it mandated Meta to ‘deactivate’ ads and content that encourage or help access CSEAM on Instagram immediately. The government also requested a comprehensive response from Meta in seven days.

The government’s move comes after a BBC Eye investigation revealed that Instagram was running advertisements containing terms that could be associated with child sexual abuse, some of which allegedly led to Telegram channels. The investigation also revealed several such ads were able to get through Instagram’s systems.

After being asked by the BBC, Meta stated that it had disabled some ads and accounts associated with these ads. The company also claims it filters content and accounts that break its policies, and stated it is utilising proactive detection systems.

In July, Meta also announced that it would report content where it is aware of apparent child exploitation to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in compliance with applicable laws.

In an additional statement on the fight against child exploitation, Meta mentioned that, as per the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the rules governing it, the reports are filed with the national cybercrime reporting portal (NCRP) in India through the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In India, in the last six months, the company has removed 160,000 accounts as part of its enforcement action, the company stated.

The government’s latest stance suggests it expects platforms to do more than just take actions in response to child safety-related complaints; it wants platforms to take proactive actions and report child safety violations.