The Covid-19-induced lockdown and online education have impacted more than 60 per cent children in the country negatively. While at least two behavioural changes were reported in 60 per cent children, almost 40 per cent of them were found to have more than two behavioural changes like absent-mindedness and unjustified absence from school (both 26 per cent), followed by increased usage of smartphones in school (20.9 per cent). Unfortunately, the alarming situation is going unnoticed and unaddressed by the government and school authorities who are further making kids dependent on smart phones and gadgets. The result: rampant online child sexual exploitation and abuse, cyber bullying, sexual harassment, sextortion, sexting and online grooming, where the accused are grooming the victim children for further exploitation.
With the innovations in information technology, schools are prompted to adopt new online tools for education like creating WhatsApp groups for students. This, however, has pushed the hapless children into an online world where both international and national legal frameworks lag miserably in responding to the rapidly evolving challenge. The end result is children are being exposed to a risky environment where the threats and dangers are no less than to their lives. Not to mention the stress, anxiety and psychological challenges being faced by kids, the caregivers are falling short and systems found inadequate to handle the Pandora’s Box of the internet.
These critical observations, found in a recent study jointly conducted by CRY (Child Rights and You) and CNLU (Chanakya National Law University, Patna), should set the alarm bells ringing for the government, civil society and especially the educational system. The study claims that the online perpetrators have made the most of children’s increased exposure to the internet during Covid-19, and it’s high time the concerned authorities took the strictest measures in the best interest of the children.
As usual, the reporting of cases was less and the discussions around it were even lesser. Only 30 per cent of the parents stated that they would go to the police station and file a complaint, while a worrying 70 per cent discarded the option. A total of 497 incidents were reported where the teachers had come across incidence of online child sexual abuse including bullying, sharing sexual content, sending inappropriate or pornographic images. Most cases occurred on social media platforms (27 per cent) and individual phones (26 per cent), while 11 per cent of such cases took place during online classes, 21 per cent in formal WhatsApp groups created by the school, and 15 per cent in chat rooms among students of the school, the study said.
The study, ‘POCSO and Beyond: Understanding Online Safety during COVID’, observed that with easy access for children and adolescents to the internet and online communication across social media platforms, the silent pandemic of online child sexual abuse is here to stay and gradually aggravate, demanding urgent measures to respond to it before it outruns our coping mechanism.
The study conducted on the occasion of 10 years of enactment of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, 2012, also claims that adolescent girls and boys within 14-18 years of age and belonging to the lower income strata conspicuously figured as the most vulnerable age group.
“The study tracks the shift in child sexual abuse to online mode in the cross-section of the period initiating from the onset of the COVID pandemic,” said Puja Marwaha, the Chief Executive at CRY.
Lok Sabha MP Santosh Kumar Gangwar who was present for the launch of the study said the need of the hours is public awareness while Justice Mridula Mishra said child sexual abuse is increasing at a fast pace in India and the need of the hour is to revisit the existing regulations and legislations to make them more effective.
Going by the findings of the study, one-third (33.2 per cent) of the parents among the respondents reported that their children were approached by strangers via online platforms soliciting friendships, fishing for personal and family details and broaching up sexual advice concerning relationships; and children were shared inappropriate sexual content and were indulged in sexual conversations online.
Of the children indicating cases of online solicitations and abuse, 40 per cent were adolescent girls within 14-18 years, closely followed by adolescent boys (33 per cent) within the same age group. These findings indicated a huge information deficit and low trust with the legal and law enforcement institutions among the parents.
