For today's children, childhood is no longer confined to the spaces we grew up with. A significant part of their lives exists online. The internet is where they attend classes, discover ideas, explore their interests, make friends, express themselves and find their voice. It has expanded the possibilities of childhood in ways previous generations could scarcely have imagined.
This digital world has given children something profoundly important: greater access and greater agency. Today, a child can learn beyond the boundaries of a classroom. A young person can encounter perspectives far beyond their immediate surroundings. They can create, communicate and participate in conversations that shape the world around them. For many children, especially those who may feel unheard or constrained by their physical circumstances, the digital world can open numerous doors. That, in itself, is a remarkable expansion of freedom.
When freedom meets risk
But freedom also comes with a responsibility to create conditions in which it can be meaningfully exercised. The same environment that gives children unprecedented opportunities can expose them to forms of harm that previous generations never had to navigate.
Cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation, privacy violations, misinformation and other online risks can enter children's lives through the same screens that bring them education, friendship and creativity. And this is the contradiction at the heart of ‘digital childhood’.
With more than 113 million Indians below the age of 18 using the internet, children constitute one of the country's largest online communities. The opportunities are enormous. A child in a small town can access knowledge that was once available only in libraries and classrooms. Young people can create, collaborate and find communities beyond geographical boundaries.
But children aren’t truly free to participate online if they are expected to navigate these risks entirely on their own. Nor should the response be to remove them from the digital world altogether.
The latest NCRB data should make us pause—quite literally. India recorded more than one lakh cybercrime cases in 2024, while cybercrime cases involving children have increased dramatically since 2017. Behind every number is a person, and when that person is a child, the consequences can extend far beyond a screen.
Protection without restriction
Asking children to simply stay offline is neither realistic nor fair. The answer is not less digital freedom, but safer digital freedom. Protecting children should not mean making decisions for them at every step or treating them as incapable of understanding the digital world.
It should mean giving them the knowledge, confidence and support to navigate it. It also means helping children recognise risks, understand their rights, protect their privacy, question what they encounter, and know where and whom to turn to when something goes wrong.
Most importantly, it means ensuring that asking for help never becomes a source of shame or punishment. Children deserve both protection and participation, and one cannot come at the expense of the other.
Parents, teachers, schools, communities, governments, technology companies and civil society all have a role in shaping the digital environment.
We cannot build digital spaces that encourage children to participate and then expect them alone to bear the consequences when those spaces fail them. A child should not have to choose between being safe and being heard.
What kind of digital India will children inherit?
As India looks towards 2047, this becomes an even more important question. We often speak about the India we want to build by the centenary of Independence—a country that is more prosperous, inclusive, innovative and empowered. But we must also ask: What kind of digital India will our children inherit?
Will it be a digital India where children can explore without constantly fearing harm, and where technology expands opportunity without compromising dignity? Such outcomes do not happen automatically. Our tomorrow will be shaped by the choices we make today.
Which is why even a simple idea such as CRY's 'Ting Tong' campaign, encouraging us to pause before we click, trust, share or post, carries a larger message. It reminds us that creating safer digital spaces begins with behaviour, but cannot end there.
The concept is deceptively simple. A notification sound becomes a reminder to stop for a moment before clicking, sharing, posting, forwarding or trusting something online. In a digital culture designed around speed—instant messages, instant reactions and endless scrolling—the decision to pause can itself become a form of protection.
Freedom worth protecting
Freedom for a child is not simply the ability to access the internet, but the ability to learn from it, participate in it, express themselves through it and benefit from its possibilities without having to trade away their safety.
Teaching children to pause before clicking is valuable. Telling them to protect their privacy, question unfamiliar requests and think critically about online information is equally important.
The ‘Ting Tong’ message, therefore, has relevance beyond one campaign. It has the potential to become a cultural habit: pause before you click, pause before you trust, pause before you share and, more importantly, pause before blaming a child when something goes wrong.
Because ultimately, creating a safer internet for children is about making sure that the digital world becomes worthy of their trust.
(The author is the director, CRY – Child Rights and You (West))
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
