Study Reveals Online Child Abuse Increased in India During Lockdown

A day after Child Rights and You (CRY) published data on its recent study ‘POSCO and Beyond: Understanding Online Safety during Covid’, it has been revealed that adolescents aged between 14 and 18 years were facing sexual misconduct during lockdown.

In collaboration with the Chanakya National Law University in Patna, the study found that out of 424 parents, there were at least 33% parents who claimed that their children has experienced sexually inappropriate incidents online. They were approached by strangers, who digged in their personal lives by exposing sexually explicit content in the conversations. According to a report by Deccan Herald, “In some cases, perpetrators fished for personal and family details, gave sexual and relationship advice, and in some instances, shared inappropriate sexual content or indulged in sexual conversations online.”

During the survey, only 33% parents claimed that their children had gone through OCSEA while the remaining approximately 67% had no say in the matter. Out of these 33% most of the reports came from rural areas than urban areas. This study aimed to produce data from respondents (parents and teachers) from states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka.

During the study, there were a series of questions for the respondents. While some parents claimed to file a complaint and go by the rule if their children faced OCSEA, others emerged to be ignorant what laws were associated with such illegal activities online.

Another part of the study that these findings reveal is that most people are bereft of the information on laws and legal acts associated.

Measures against online child abuse

On this note, Soha Moitra, Director of Development Support at CRY added that “This research has found that the internet is being used for the trafficking of children in India. Now, with the use of the internet in trafficking, especially among younger children, as indicated in this study, the provisions may need to be re-evaluated.”

There are a number of laws that criminalise online sexual abuse against children like the IT Act and the POSCO Act in India. While under Section 67B of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, offenders of the law are punishment for publishing, transmitting, or viewing child sexual abuse material online and the POSCO Act provides punishment for using children for pornographic purposes.

Suggested Reading: Online Safety: What Young People Really Think About Social Media