- 2012 onwards Children are protected under Special Act from Sexual Violence.-POSCO
- Gender-neutral law. Recognizes that boys can be victims of sexual violence as well.
- Recognizes sexual harassment of a child which involves touch, stalking, making a child expose themselves or exposing themselves to a child, and so on.
- Stringent punishment for exposing children to, or using them to create child sexual abuse material.
- Burden of proof on the accused, following ‘guilty until proven innocent’ unlike the IPC.
- A child-friendly mechanism for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through special courts.
- Law defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years. .
- Mandatory to report crime mentioned in POSCO.
- Any children housing institution or coming in regular contact with them is required to conduct periodic police verification and a thorough background check of each employee who interacts with a child.
- No direct contact with accused of victim:
- Child cannot be detained at the police station at night,
- Child identity should be protected from the public and media unless directed otherwise by a Special Court.
- If the survivor is a girl, the medical examination should be done by a woman doctor, and the examination can only be done in the presence of a parent, or a person the child trusts. If neither of the two are there, then the examination should be done in the presence of a woman nominated by the head of the medical institution.
- Child friendly court atmosphere in Court
- Sections of the POCSO Act may be added by the police in the First Information Report (FIR) whenever a sexual offence is committed against a child.
- Supreme Court has held that sexual intent was the most important ingredient constituting sexual assault under POCSO Act and “skin-to-skin contact” in such incidents was not relevant.
