Child Sexual Abuse: Challenges in the Digital Age

1. Introduction

The number of rape incidents reported in India in the year 2020, revealed a horrific number of 22,172 incidents per 100,000 citizens¹. The Government of India, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) performed a study in 2007 where they interviewed 125,000 children in 13 Indian states. The report revealed that prevalence of all forms of child abuse is extremely high (physical abuse [66%], sexual abuse [50%], and emotional abuse [50%]) in the country. This major state-sponsored survey in India reported the prevalence of child sexual abuse as 53%².

The present environment that children are surrounded with i.e. the digitization era, should and has alarmed the public. From educational affairs to basic communication medium, most of everything is now digitized. “The internet is no longer a luxury for children, but has become a necessity for playing, keeping in touch with friends and family, learning and building skills for the future”.³ Accompanied with this development, is a bitter truth. This era of digitization has paved the way for online sexual abuse, particularly for children who cannot perceive and predict the reality and harms of what they can be/are manipulated into.

The objective of this article is to examine the rise in child sexual abuse, understand the causes and legal developments that have been put together in India to fight sexual abuse of children, and critically analyse the challenges surrounding this area.

2. Statistics around the world

“More than 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation”, found a report published by University of Edinburg and UNSW Sydney. Around one in eight children worldwide (approximately 302 million children) have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and videos in the past year. One in eight children globally is estimated to have been subject in the past year to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk, which can include non-consensual sexting, unwanted sexual questions and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths⁴. Furthermore, the widespread growth of generative AI is heavily aiding in these crimes. For instance, in one month, the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found nearly 14,000 suspected AI-generated images on a single dark-web forum dedicated to child sexual abuse materials, almost a third confirmed as criminal, and the first realistic AI videos of child sexual abuse⁵. In Korea, law enforcement reported a ten-fold increase in sexual offenses involving AI and deepfake technologies between 2022 to 2024, with teenagers constituting the majority of the accused⁶. According to National Crime Records Bureau of India, the number of cases of online exploitation of children in the country rose from 305 to 1102 in a year⁷.

3. Uncovering ways of Online Sexual Offences against children
4. Online Grooming

This occurs when an adult forms an emotional and/or psychological attachment to a child, with the purpose of sexual exploitation of the child. This can occur on multiple platforms like gaming sites, social media, communication apps, etc.

2. Child Sexual Abuse Material

This refers to when, one pictures or video graphs a child online in a sexual manner or does it physically and proceeds to upload and circulate it online. It also includes material generated online using AI.

3. Sextortion

Several cases report children being manipulated and exploited into fulfilling sexual demands due to intimidation by the offender. This includes the offender threatening the child to release data like videos and photos of them.

4. Indian Legislation

India has created a few legislations to help fight this calamity against children. These include the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 and the Information Technology Act 2000.

1. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012⁸

This act was introduced to protect children from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. Section 11 provides us with a definition of sexual harassment that not only includes sexual conduct done in person but also done electronically⁹. Any person who does so faces imprisonment up to 3 years and a fine. Section 13¹⁰ tackles the crime of pornography involving a child directly or indirectly, in print or electronically. One who commits this crime is liable to imprisonment of not less than five years and a fine¹¹. The act also deals with possession of pornography material involving a child. Any person who does so can face up to three years of imprisonment and fine for transmitting or displaying purposes while one who does so for commercial purpose shall be punished with imprisonment of minimum three years and fine. Moreover, the act also shines a light on duties of a citizen. It requires any person who has apprehension or knowledge of a crime under this act to report it to the police or the special juvenile police unit. If not, the person faces imprisonment and/or fine¹². These provisions are necessary with digital context in mind, as the number of e-crimes skyrocket.

The POCSO Act 2012 provides for establishment of special courts in each district to ensure speedy trials. It additionally requires burden of proof to be put on the accused and has a child friendly process.

2. Information Technology Act 2000

This act is interlinked with the POCSO 2012 as any digital offense committed under the POCSO 2012 may also be considered an offense under the IT Act 2000. Section 67B covers punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act in electronic form. Any person convicted under this section faces imprisonment for a term of maximum of five years and fine of maximum 10 lakh rupees¹³. The POCSO Act and the IT Act complement each other and work together to challenge sexual crimes against children.

5. Landmark Judgment

One of the most significant cases involving digital exploitation of minors is Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish¹⁴.. The case concerned possession and storage of child pornography by the respondent. The Supreme Court, taking a broad point of view, overturned the high court’s order and established that viewing, possession, and storage of material that depicts minors in sexual activity is an offense. The judgement brings closure to a longstanding split among high courts on whether mere storage of child pornography can be considered an offense under Section 15 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000¹⁵. Furthermore, the Supreme Court also made a clear distinction in the terminology used for crimes. It asserted that the above crime is referred to as ‘Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material’ rather than child pornography, as the word ‘pornography’ may be associated with consensual sexual activity.

6. Challenges to the legislative framework
7. Privacy Limitations

Critics argue that privacy limits the state from interfering in one’s personal activities like learning about the data in their mobile phones. The Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish¹⁶ rejected this point of view. The case put forward the precedent that possessing or viewing child sexual abuse material is not equivalent to consumption of adult pornography. The State has the right to investigate into matters when it deems the nature of the material against law.

2. Cross Border nature of crimes

At times, the victim and the offender do not belong to the same jurisdiction as digital media can be viewed from any corner of the world. This creates a limiting issue and requires cooperation across jurisdictions.

3. Incognito mode

In most cases, the offender uses an anonymous account or incognito mode to protect their real identities. Further, end-to-end encryption makes capturing criminal information difficult.

4. Socio- cultural Obstruction

Children and their parents may be reluctant to report abuse and harassment due to fear of shame, threats, financial issues, and court delays. This results in a massive difference between crime reports and actual reports.

7. Conclusion

The era of digitization has paved the way for child sexual exploitation. Offendors now have the resources and ability to commit online crimes against innocent and unaware children through multiple ways like grooming, exploitation, etc on multiple offline and online platforms, at times without ever receiving a conviction. These crimes affect and alter the lives of millions of children every year. The POCSO Act 2012 and the IT Act 2000 continue to assist and illegalize these crimes. But unless, proper and more stringent laws are put in place over the world, the concern keeps rising every second.

References

Primary Sources

Table of Legislation

1. Information Technology Act 2000
2. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012

Table of Cases

1. Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish [2024] INSC

Secondary Sources

1. Artificial Intelligence and Child Sexual abuse and Exploitation’ (UNICEF, February 2026), \ https://www.unicef.org/media/178571/file/UNICEF%20AI%20CSEA%20Brief_2.pdf\ accessed 13th August 2026
2. ‘Childhood in a Digital World’, (Unicef) \ https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/childhood-digital-world\ accessed 13th August 2026
3. Deepfake, other digital sex crimes by teens nearly double in South Korea in four years’ (Straits Times, 15th September 2026), \ https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/deepfake-other-digital-sex-crimes-by-teens-nearly-double-in-south-korea-in-four-years\ accessed 13th August 2026
4. Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development ‘Online Cyber Grooming of Women and Young Children’ (Press Information Bureau, 16th March 2022), < https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1806602&reg=48&lang=2> accessed 13th August 2026
5. More than 300 million child victims of online sexual abuse globally: reports’ (UNSW Media, 27th May 2024), \ https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2024/05/more-than-300-million-child-victims-of-online-sexual-abuse-globally-report\ accessed 13th August 2026
6. ‘Rape Statistics by country 2020’, (World Population Review) \ https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/rape-statistics-by-country\ accessed 13th August 2026
7. Tyagi, Karande, ‘Child sexual abuse in India’ (National Library of Medicine, 3 August 2021) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8445113/#ref8 accessed 13th August 2026