ONLINE HARASSMENT: LEGAL PROTECTION FOR WOMEN AND CHILDERN

Abstract: India's rapid digital expansion, with over 900 million internet users by 2024, has enabled unprecedented connectivity while simultaneously fuelling a sharp escalation in online harassment disproportionately targeting women and children. Cyberstalking, non-consensual intimate image sharing, doxxing, sexual threats, impersonation, and child grooming have emerged as defining harms of the digital age, rooted in pre-existing structural inequalities now amplified by technology. This study undertakes a comprehensive doctrinal examination of India's legal framework governing online harassment of women and children, evaluating its constitutional foundations, statutory architecture, regulatory mechanisms, and judicial doctrines. The constitutional framework under Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 is analysed as the normative standard against which all legislative responses are assessed, drawing on landmark judgments including Puttaswamy (privacy), Shreya Singhal (online speech), and Vishaka (sexual harassment). The statutory framework is examined across the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012, revealing significant definitional gaps, overlapping provisions, and interpretive inconsistencies that undermine their protective effectiveness. The IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2021 are evaluated for their adequacy in regulating platform accountability, with the study finding meaningful progress offset by uneven implementation and the absence of an independent enforcement authority. The central finding is that despite formal legislative comprehensiveness, online harassment persists at escalating rates due to chronic under-resourcing of cybercrime investigation, institutional hostility toward women victims, and fragmented jurisprudence across jurisdictions. Reform recommendations include enacting a comprehensive Online Safety Act, establishing an independent Digital Safety Regulator, building specialist law enforcement capacity, codifying a right to erasure for harassment victims, and enacting a dedicated Children's Online Safety Act. These reforms are proposed as constitutional imperatives necessary to ensure India's digital transformation is equitable and rights-respecting for its most vulnerable citizens. .________________________________________________________________________