Digital India: Child Safety Govt Responsibility

Virag Gupta, Supreme Court lawyer and author of ‘India Prospering with Digital Laws’

A junior engineer from UP and his wife were sentenced to death by a special court in February 2026 in the case of sexual exploitation of children. According to BBC report, Instagram has also promoted content related to child sexual abuse in India through recommendation algorithm for money. But instead of filing a case on this, the government has sought a reply from Meta Company within a week. It is important to understand 5 aspects related to this matter.

1. An inter-ministerial committee of the Ministries of Women and Child Development, Home, Law, IT, External Affairs and Telecommunications was formed in May 2017 for the online safety of children. According to the reply given by Union Minister Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in March 2026, dissemination of material related to sexual exploitation of children on social media is a serious crime as per POCSO, IT and BNS laws. 774 fast track courts have been formed to punish the culprits.

2. Telegram was banned to stop paper leak in NEET. The government had said in the Delhi High Court that cases of copying mafia, terrorism, child pornography, financial fraud, digital arrest and cyber crime are increasing due to Telegram. India, with 154 crore customers of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is the biggest market for Meta Company. In such a situation, criminal action should be taken with heavy fines against those who put the future of children at stake through the organized crime of sexual exploitation.

3. Cases related to sexual exploitation of children and child pornography are going on in America, Australia and EU against tech companies along with criminal cases and recovery of fines. In the Digital Arrest case, the Attorney General had said in the Supreme Court that SIM binding in WhatsApp will reduce cyber crimes. But after lobbying by tech companies, the Telecom Ministry extended the deadline for following the rules. According to the changes in IT intermediary rules in February 2026, instead of taking action within 2 hours in the Instagram case, it has been given a week to respond.

4. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Gebreyes and French President Emmanuel Macron have appealed to save children in the digital world. According to the order of Delhi High Court dated 23 August 2013, children below 13 years of age cannot join social media. In 2021, a Delhi Police notice was issued along with the Ghaziabad Police FIR against Twitter. IT Minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar had given a statement in Parliament in October 2023 to end the safe harbor protection of tech companies that do not follow Indian rules. According to him, a criminal case should be registered against the nominated officials of Instagram.

5. While giving death sentence to the engineer couple of Banda, the judge had called the crime of child sexual abuse as the rarest of rare. In thousands of cases registered under POCSO, people are not getting bail from the Supreme Court. Awareness for the safety of children is being increased in 16600 schools and Anganwadis of Delhi. On the other hand, criminal cases are not even being registered against Instagram, its advertisers who promote child sexual exploitation and organized criminals who spread child pornography videos. Due to this, the future of children is becoming bleak and the foundation of rule of law is also weakening.

India, with 154 crore customers of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is the biggest market for Meta Company. In such a situation, criminal action should be taken with heavy fines against those who put the future of children at stake through the organized crime of sexual exploitation. (These are the author’s own views)

Make Dainik Bhaskar your favorite source on Google ➔