• Police probe groups targeting women and children
• NCPA urged to pursue offenders under child protection laws
• CERT says Meta providing details of anonymous users

The Government has ordered a crackdown on a disturbing wave of Facebook groups in which anonymous users allegedly share photographs of women and girls without their consent, including children as young as five, while making sexually explicit and degrading claims about them.

The Women and Child Affairs Ministry has directed the Police to take legal action against those operating and participating in the groups, while calling on the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) to initiate proceedings against perpetrators under its enabling legislation.

The move follows mounting outrage over Facebook groups, some with more than 14,000 followers, where photographs of women and girls are circulated alongside sexually suggestive captions. Activists have also revealed that some users allegedly offer the photographs for monetary transactions and make claims the women and girls depicted are their mothers, sisters or children, while openly inviting others to engage in sexual relationships with them for money.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, Women and Child Affairs Ministry Secretary Tharangani Wickramasinghe said that the Police are investigating the matter and that relevant authorities have been instructed to take action.

"We have informed the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Bureau for the Investigation of the Abuse of Children and Women, and the Police Computer Crime Investigation Division, which oversees social media-related offences, is attending to the issue. We have also written to the Attorney General's (AG) Department to explore further legal avenues regarding the matter," she said.

Meanwhile, the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) said that efforts to remove the offending content from social media platforms are continuing, with several groups already taken down.

CERT Lead Information Security Engineer Charuka Damunupola told The Daily Morning that takedowns had already been carried out on TikTok and Telegram, while action against the Facebook groups was ongoing.

"From TikTok and Telegram, the takedowns have already happened, and the issue still lies with the Facebook groups. Some of the groups have been removed, but there are some that still remain," he said.

He said existing laws could be used to prosecute those involved, particularly where child exploitation and child sexual imagery are concerned, despite concerns that the Computer Crime Act predates the emergence of newer social media platforms.

"In this particular situation, practices such as child exploitation and child sexual imagery can be addressed under the prevailing law, as they are taken under child abuse," Damunupola said.

He added that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, generally provides information requested by authorities to identify anonymous users.

"When we request Meta regarding the details of these anonymous members in the groups, on most occasions, they provide us with the information. We don't need a separate Act for this; under the Penal Code, we can punish the offenders," he said.

According to Damunupola, the main challenge is identifying those behind the accounts, with the relevant Police division having already requested information to assist in the investigations.

He noted that existing provisions, including Section 345 of the Penal Code, which deals with assault or the use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty, could also be used by the Police to pursue offenders.

The development comes after a recent wave of Facebook groups sparked widespread outrage over the non-consensual sharing of photographs of women and girls, with sexually suggestive and degrading captions.

The issue came to wider public attention after a foreign social media personality highlighted in a video that the practice was widespread on Facebook in Sri Lanka.

The NCPA has also been called upon to take legal action against those responsible, particularly in cases involving children.

When contacted by The Daily Morning, NCPA Chairperson Inoka Ranasinghe requested that the newspaper contact her after the weekend.

Officer-in-Charge of the Police Bureau for the Investigation of the Abuse of Children and Women, Nimali Fonseka, was unable to provide details of the ongoing investigation when contacted and requested that the newspaper contact her in person.