How the Medium of Delivery Shifted from Static Objects to Dynamic, Interactive Platforms
The Rise of User-Generated Content: Blurring the Lines of Production
User-generated content (UGC) has blurred production boundaries, empowering individuals to create and distribute adult material. In Bharat, incidents like the 2025 Gen Z trend in content creation have led to mental health impacts and legal risks under IT Act provisions. Government actions, such as blocking platforms for vulgar content, highlight UGC’s role in proliferation. [1] A study revealed adolescents’ exposure via UGC on digital media, influenced by familial factors.[2] But this is not a problem of adolescents only. Such kind of content is having bad psychological impact on adults also. Engagement arises from intimate directed communication and positive consumption, fostering community bonds. Research shows monetization motivates creators, increasing interaction. Posting UGC, sharing creations, liking peers’ work, quoting collaborations, reposting fan edits, and commenting feedback accelerate spread.
Anonymity as a Shield: Why Faceless Profiles Accelerate Indecency, Obscene Content, Carnally Explicit Content of Verbal, Pictorial, Audible and Visual Forms
The phenomenon of anonymity acting as a catalyst for indecent, obscene, and explicitly carnal content online is best understood through the psychological lens of the Online Disinhibition Effect. When individuals interact through faceless profiles, they experience a profound separation between their real-world identities and their digital actions. In physical reality, social norms and the threat of immediate reputational damage act as a braking mechanism on our darker impulses. We govern our speech and behavior because our faces and names are attached to them. However, once that tether is severed by a pseudonym or a blank avatar, the psychological barrier collapses. The anonymity provided by the internet functions not merely as a mask, but as a shield that protects the aggressor from the social consequences of their actions, creating an environment where the usual rules of civility and decency no longer apply.[3]
The acceleration of pictorial and visual obscenity follows a similar trajectory. In the physical world, exposing oneself or distributing explicit material carries the risk of immediate legal intervention or social ostracization. Behind a faceless profile, however, the fear of judgment evaporates. The screen becomes a protective barrier, reducing the fear of punishment. This results in the rapid proliferation of unsolicited explicit imagery and grotesquely obscene visual content. The faceless nature of these profiles suggests a temporary existence; if one account is banned, another can be created instantly, rendering accountability nearly impossible. This disposable nature of online identity encourages a lack of restraint, as the user invests nothing in the profile and therefore has nothing to lose by violating community standards or human decency.
The 24/7 Cycle: The Shift from Occasional Consumption to Constant Access
The digital era has transformed adult content consumption from occasional, deliberate acts, such as renting a video or buying a magazine, to a 24/7 cycle of constant, on-demand access via smartphones and high-speed internet. This always-available nature fosters habitual, impulsive viewing, often leading to compulsive patterns resembling addiction.
Real-life incidents highlighted the consequences time to time. The cases of adolescents developing severe addictions have led to academic failure, family conflicts, and mental health crises. Government data reflects growing concern, with ongoing crackdowns on OTT platforms streaming obscene content and reports of rising child pornography cases, over 10,000 inputs in 2025 alone. Cyber bullying is another act causing such crises in minors.
Globally and in Bharat, consumption peaks late at night, enabled by private mobile access. Research shows frequent exposure distorts sexual expectations, harms emotional development, lowers self-esteem, and correlates with anxiety, depression, and risky behaviors. Constant notifications and algorithmic recommendations create dopamine-driven loops, encouraging endless scrolling and escalation to more extreme material.[4] User interactions sustain this cycle. Posting teasers or links at any hour refreshes feeds, sharing triggers notifications, liking boosts algorithmic visibility, quoting adds commentary sparking debates, reposting recirculates content, and commenting maintains engagement. These mechanics turn occasional viewing into perpetual availability, normalizing indecency and amplifying spread. To disrupt this cycle, report violating content for removal, block sources, and use app timers or night modes to limit access, e.g., Android Digital Wellbeing, iOS Screen Time.
How Platforms Earn?
As it has been discussed again and again that social media is giving platform to such content. But no one is doing free social work by creating such platforms. As you are having facility to connect the world in the comfort zone of your house, these platforms are earning by ad revenue and selling premium membership. As they are playing silent role in distribution of such content, there is no single statutory provision in force making these platforms liable. Various platforms are having policies on paper. To restrict or remove such content from social media platform, mass reporting is needed, otherwise these policies are not of any use.
On X (formerly Twitter), creators can earn through subscriptions and ad revenue shares, but adult content must be labeled and cannot appear in profiles or ads; X takes a cut from subscriptions while prohibiting global promotion of sexual material.[5] But before getting mortised on X one have to purchase the membership to get verified. All this membership fees is sole earning of X. If such account gets certain numbers of verified followers, and certain millions of impressions, such account get monetized and from ad revenue X keeps certain percentage of earnings. Thus X is earning from distribution of such content, although it is labeled.
[1] India’s Government Crackdown on Obscene Content on OTT Platforms, CyberPeace, https://cyberpeace.org/resources/blogs/indias-government-crackdown-on-obscene-content-on-ott-platforms
[2] Bharat under Seige, Bharat Lex, https://bharatlex-rinkutai.com/bharat-under-siege/
[3] The Online Disinhibition Effect, Research Gate, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8451443_The_Online_Disinhibition_Effect
[4] Social Media Algorithms and Teen Addiction: Neurophysiological Impact and Ethical Considerations, Cureus, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11804976/pdf/cureus-0017-00000077145.pdf
[5] Adult Content, X Help Centre, https://help.x.com/en/rules-and-policies/adult-content
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Foundations – Defining the Indecent and Obscene Content
Historical Context and Evolution: Part 1