Mumbai, April 20: Maharashtra is one of the worst-hit states in the coronavirus pandemic in India. The state has also seen a huge spike in child porn consumption during the lockdown period. According to the state Home Minister, the increase in child porn consumption shows the huge presence of paedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts online.

Anil Deshmukh informed that the government is taking urgent steps to tighten stringency to prevent a drastic rise in sexual crimes against children. The cybercrime department of the Maharashtra police registered 133 cases and arrested 46 people under IPC Section during the lockdown. Shocking! Child Porn Demand Rises, Traffic From India on Pornhub Up by 95% Amid COVID-19 Lockdown, Says Study.

Here's the tweet shared by ANI:

Last week, the Indian Child Protection Fund (ICPF) said the demand for child pornographic material (also referred to as Child Sexual Abuse Material) has been rising during the lockdown period. The ICPF reported that since the lockdown, online data monitoring websites have seen an increase in demand for searches like child porn, sexy child and teen sex videos.

The data from Pornhub, further revealed that traffic from India increased by 95 per cent between March 24 and March 26, as compared to their average traffic, pre-Coronavirus outbreak, ICPF mentioned in a statement.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country increased to 17,265, and the death toll jumped to 543. Maharashtra continues to be one of the worst affected states, with the maximum number of coronavirus infected people. There is a total of 4,203 positive cases and the death toll in the state has increased to 223.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 20, 2020 12:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).