DIGITAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN INDIA: LEGAL CHALLENGES AND REFORMS

The rapid proliferation of internet access in India has fundamentally transformed the nature and
scale of threats faced by children in digital spaces. Crimes such as online grooming, cyberbullying,
child sexual abuse material (CSAM), sextortion, and digital trafficking have grown alongside
increasing internet penetration, exposing millions of vulnerable minors to exploitation with
impunity. India's existing legal architecture anchored by the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Act, 2012 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides a foundational but
demonstrably insufficient response to these evolving harms. This article undertakes a systematic
doctrinal and analytical examination of the legislative framework governing digital child
protection in India, identifies critical gaps in statutory coverage, enforcement capacity, and
institutional coordination, and situates these findings within a comparative analysis of international
instruments including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Budapest
Convention on Cybercrime, and the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act, 2023. Drawing on
judicial precedent, crime statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau, and scholarly
literature, the study argues that India's present regulatory posture remains reactive and
technologically unresponsive, failing to address emerging threats such as artificial intelligence
generated abuse material, deep-fake exploitation, and dark-web trafficking networks.1 The article
advances a set of reform proposals encompassing legislative modernisation, capacity building within law enforcement, mandatory platform accountability, and a child-centred digital literacy
framework. It concludes that effective protection of children in the digital age demands a multi
stakeholder, proactive, and rights-based approach that aligns domestic law with global best
practices.