BENGALURU: With increasing number of crimes where students are influenced by social media and lack of awareness about the same among parents, schools and children, the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has sent a set of recommendations to different departments including the department of school education and literacy, police department, Directorate of Child Protection and Departments of IT, BT and Science and technology to increase digital literacy among the stakeholders.
Shashidhar Kosambe, Interim Chairman of KSCPCR, said, “Banning mobile phones for children under the age of 16 is practically not possible because a lot of schools send their assignments on parents’ phone, some schools conduct online classes during the time of emergency and so on. But what can be done is that all the departments can work in collaboration by implementing these recommendations given by the commission.”
A recent report released in June 2025 by KSCPCR in collaboration with the ChildFund India revealed that the age group of 15-18 years were found to be most vulnerable to unsafe interactions on social media or online platforms and majority of them involved strangers. Kosambe said, “We conducted this survey in five districts including Bengaluru, Chamrajanagara, Belagavi, Chikkamagaluru and Raichur. Six schools were surveyed in each district and the data was surprising to us.”
As per the recommendations, the KSCPCR has urged the GoK to build playground across city and rural schools so that it promotes outdoor sports and events that involve physical activities instead of being glued to screens; create IEC material to encourage the use of parental control software on devices used by children, with tutorials for parents and caregivers on their effective use; coordinate with tech companies and cyber security experts to develop tools for identifying and removing harmful content.