The invisible threat: How online strangers are grooming children, and what we can do about it

Time of India

2 days ago

In the dim, quiet corners of our digital barnyard, a disturbing menace is growing, and it will very soon be too big to ignore — a parasite that trains on us and milks us of trust and truth, quality and attention, the little bit of sapience we were able to scrape together as a species.
While kids are spending more and more time on the Internet for school, gaming and socializing, they are also inadvertently stepping into areas where predators lurk behind guises of fake names and identities.
India's rapid digital evolution has opened up a new world of possibilities for children to learn and connect, but it has also exposed them to cyberbullying, grooming, identity theft and inappropriate content.
Global Overview With more than 950 million internet users around the world, children represent the largest growing digital population who are at risk of online abuse. Cyber-crimes against children have seen an increase of 500% in India between 2019 and 2022, according to Crime in India Report 2023 by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) run under the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India.
Cyber pornography or display or publication of obscene sexual materials of children, cyber blackmailing, etc are some other cyber-crimes against children.
According to a report released in the media by LocalCircle, 60% of the 9-17 age group spend more than three hours on any of the social media or gaming sites every day.
Most kids, beginning from a point of unsupervised exposure or limited parenting, and not 'knowing' even due to deficient education or reinforcement of safe internet engagement, have little or no clue endangering predators take advantage digitally in an effort to attack them.
The heightened sophistication of AI can now generate fake identities that can even hoodwink the more experienced cybersecurity professionals, leaving vulnerable young people at risk.
And there is a good reason why the United Kingdom is implementing laws to make it a crime to create, possess and distribute child sexual abuse materials brought into existence by AI systems. Hon'ble Prime Minister of India while delivering a public audio speech through 'Man Ki Baat' (115th Episode) presented in October 2024 stressed on the importance of safeguarding citizens from increasing trend and menace of cyber-crimes and frauds.
He appealed to everyone in the society, specially the schools and colleges to participate and contribute to sensitize the masses on cyber safety in the country.
Police have a critical role to play in the response to cybercrimes against children. Amending cyber laws and arresting the accused at the earliest can act as deterrent. This is unlike some first world countries where they recommend banning and even completely denying access to social media platform for children under 16 years of age, where recently Government of India is in the process of bringing out an amendment in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act that is making it mandatory to have parent's consent to process data of children which is to be linked to the government IDs or digital tokens.
Health care and educational institutions could handle the data with limitations. Plus, if you are under 18, you have to have parental permission to sign up for social medias. Further, the Government of India has also introduced various measures such as "Cyber Swachhta Kendra" for cyber hygiene enabled awareness and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal for reporting offences done online. Initiatives such as '#StaySafeOnline' by the Government of India have created awareness on safe internet etiquettes – stressing on the importance of being cautious.
Yet, the responsibility to make the online safe is a mutual responsibility of Parents, Educators, Law Enforcement, NGOs and technology companies. Parents should be vigilant and check on their children's online habits and participate in open talks about responsibility using digital technology. Schools should incorporate digital literacy across their curriculum to equip students with the ability to identify and respond to risks online.
Awareness campaigns should take place to teach both children and parents about internet safety and the need to report suspect behaviour.
Even as India scales up digitally, maintaining a safe online environment for children has to be the top priority. Social media (share)Digital platforms, gaming sites and messaging apps must make age verification tools stronger, content moderation systems more robust and work to strengthen reporting mechanisms to help identify and remove harmful content.
GOI also has to come up with a monitoring, certification or categorize mechanism of the Apps for the child safety parameters, available in different platforms.
Safeguarding children from cyber threats is crucial in perpetuating their right to a safe childhood. India can protect children by raising awareness and enhancing protective measures that allow children to play, learn and grow in a safe environment online.
Note:
This should also be against children as Save the Children, India (also known as Bal Raksha Bharat) has been involved in promoting safe online experience. It collaborates with NortonLifeLock to deliver an online child protection program since 2021 focusing on educating children, school teachers and parents and implementing mass awareness campaigns online and offline to ensure a safer online environment. It also calls for inclusion of basic cyber safety education in schools and colleges. Thus far, it has established nearly 169 cyber safety clubs in the same number of schools, trained more than 1,200 teachers, 4,200 parents and over 34,000 school children on online safety. It has also developed training modules for children, teachers and police. It also has a scheme to popularise among the youth, the Cyber Crime Volunteer Programme of the Government of India.
Shaping up a safe online world for children through NGOs They can play a decisive role in ensuring protection private and NGOs work with children virtually in all regions and landscapes.
(Ramakanta Satapathy, Manager- Program Implementation, Bal Raksha Bharat - Programs related Education & Child Protection)