BENGALURU: A growing number of children in Karnataka are falling prey to online sexual exploitation and abuse, but most parents, teachers, and even government officials remain unequipped to handle or prevent such threats, a state-level study has found.
Released by the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) in partnership with ChildFund India, the study, focused on online sexual exploitation and abuse of children, raises red flags about children’s online safety, especially following the Covid pandemic, which, as per the findings, saw increased screen time and unsupervised internet use among children.
The report was released on Friday by Basavaraj Horatti, Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council.
The study covered 903 school-going children aged 8–18 years across five Karnataka districts Bengaluru, Chamarajanagar, Raichur, Chikkamagaluru and Belagavi using multi-stage random sampling. Six schools from each district were selected, and 30 students from each school were interviewed, spanning three age groups - 8–11, 12–14, and 15–18 years.
As per the findings, driven by the need for social validation and the pull of digital popularity, one in six teenagers in the past one year in Karnataka has reported connecting with strangers online — and one in ten (17% of boys and 4% of girls) has even gone on to meet them in person. A higher number of children in rural areas (12%) than urban (9%) were found to have met strangers offline.
Even more concerning, the findings reflected that 1% of children — across gender — admitted to sharing intimate photos or videos with online strangers and that 7% of children had shared personal information with strangers online, including their full name, phone number, personal photos, home address, and even personal videos.
Ages 15–18 most vulnerable to unsafe interactions
As per the findings, the age group of 15-18 was also found to be most vulnerable to unsafe interactions. About 5% of them reported feeling unsafe or embarrassed due to online experiences — with Instagram accounting for 77% of such cases. While 53% said the perpetrator was a stranger, 35% said it was someone they knew, and 12% experienced both. However, only 34% of parents took formal action like reporting to the police. Instead, most preferred to block the offender or delete chat histories.