Digital Safety & Sex Education Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Must Form Part Of School Curriculum: Supreme Court issues Guidelines For Child Safety | #childsafety | #kids | #chldern | #parents | #schoolsafey

The Supreme Court has held that awareness of digital safety and sex education must be treated as a single subject. It observed that the safeguards it has proposed against child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) would be of limited use if the children they are meant to protect do not know about them. Pertinently, in its 2024 judgment in Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish, the Court had urged the Union, through the Ministry of Women and Child Development, to implement comprehensive sex education programmes covering consent, the impact of exploitation and the legal ramifications of child pornography. The Court directed that digital safety and age-appropriate sex education be part of the core curriculum, to be taught from the primary stage. It listed sixteen measures to be undertaken by the Union and State Governments, child rights commissions, educational institutions and intermediaries. These cover consent, healthy relationships, safe internet use, reporting channels, teacher training, parental awareness, helplines in schools, and counselling for victims. The Court also asked the Union what it has done in the years since similar suggestions were made. The Bench said that the Child Helpline 1098, the Cyber Crime Helpline 1930 and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, with State-wise nodal officers, must be displayed in every classroom, hostel, library and computer laboratory, and on school websites. School devices and networks must carry reasonable and proportionate filters, extended with greater rigour to hostels, child care institutions, tuition and coaching centres. A Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K. Vinod Chandran observed, “We are also of the view that awareness of digital safety and sex education are not two separate subjects, but two sides of the same coin, and must be addressed as such. Children from an early age must be made aware of the persons they should meet and interact with, the ability to tell inappropriate requests, gestures and advances, the respect for their own dignity and of those around them, and most importantly where and whom to turn to when inappropriate any unpleasant incident does unfortunately occur. These are all concerns and measures crucial for the safety of their presence online inasmuch as for their lives outside”. Advocate Bhuwan Ribhu appeared for the applicant and Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, K.M. Nataraj, A.S.G appeared for the opposite party. The Court, thus, noted that the following measures must be undertaken by the Union and the State Governments, the National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights, educational institutions, intermediaries and all other concerned stakeholders, for ensuring the safety of the children: (i) Children, from the primary stage, must be taught in an age-appropriate manner about their bodies, the difference between safe and unsafe touch, and the significance of consent. (ii) Equally important is the need to inculcate in our children an understanding of healthy relationships and respect for one another. Experience has shown that on occasions, it is children themselves who capture, upload or circulate intimate or non-consensual images of their own peers, often without realising the gravity of what they do. Thus, it is imperative that they be taught to respect the dignity of their peers, and be cautioned against all forms of inappropriate conduct. (iii) They must also be taught the ways to use the internet safely. Measures to protect their personal data and privacy online, to recognize signs of enticement, sexual extortion, and other similar exploitative and abusive practices. (iv) They must equally know whom they can approach in such situations, and how. This would include a trusted adult at home and in school, as well as the appropriate channels for reporting any wrongful behaviour or incident, both on and off the internet. (v) Above all, children must be encouraged to come forward without fear and report such incidents. They must be assured that speaking up on these matters will never be met with any reproach, and they will be given all the help and support with complete confidentiality. (vi) Children must also be made aware of the significance of the POCSO Act and the IT Act, particularly the various provisions criminalizing the viewing, possession or circulation of CSEAM, as-well as of their rights under these enactments. (vii) Digital safety and age-appropriate sex education must form a part of the core curriculum. They must be developed by the NCERT and the SCERTs in consultation with child psychologists, educators and parenting experts. It must accommodate the diverse levels of literacy across the country through use of text-based courses, pictorial representations, illustrations and audio-visual content. (viii) The Union of India has made considerable efforts in putting in place helplines and portals for supporting victims of such incidents and facilitating commensurate actions against the perpetrators. Self-help mechanisms such as the Child Helpline ‘1098’, the Cyber Crime Helpline ‘1930’ and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, along with the details of State-wise nodal officers of the same must therefore be displayed in every classroom, hostel, library and computer laboratory, as well as on the website of every school and educational institution. (ix) Devices and networks within the premises of educational institutions and schools must be equipped with filters to prevent access to harmful content in a reasonable and proportionate manner. These measures must also extend to hostels, child care institutions, tuition and coaching centres with a greater rigour. (x) Teachers and other school staff must be adequately trained on digital safety measures and age-appropriate positive sex education. The training must, inter-alia, cover the signs of grooming, abuse and online harassment; the manner of responding to any disclosure by a child; the obligation to report under Section(s) 19 and 21 of the POCSO Act; and the confidentiality to be maintained in respect of the child. The non-teaching staff of educational institutions must also be adequately sensitised to respond to such situations. (xi) Parents and guardians are, in most cases, the first line of defence. Yet many are themselves unfamiliar with the technology their children use. Which is why, awareness programmes must be organised for them at regular intervals by all schools and educational institutions. These must, inter-alia, cover the risks that children face online; the parental controls and safety settings available on devices and platforms; the signs that a child may be in distress; and the correct approach in responding to the same. (xii) Parents in particular must be sensitised on monitoring the online activity of children and on how to avert the risks of creating mistrust or miscommunication with their child from such parental supervision. (xiii) The Union and State Governments in conjunction with the respective Commissions for Protection of Child Rights shall create awareness on the POCSO Act, of the various forms in which the abuse and exploitation of children may occur, particularly those through digital means such as CSEAM. Such campaigns must be sustained, and not sporadic. They must be disseminated through all forms of media such as televisions, social media, telecommunication channels and SMSs, OTT platforms, as-well as print media and public signage. (xiv) The Union and State Governments along with the respective Commissions for Protection of Child Rights shall also create awareness amongst all stakeholders of the measures for the digital safety of children and the various helplines and support portals available. They shall also sensitise parents, guardians, teachers and all others standing in loco parentis on the appropriate manner of responding to incidents of abuse and exploitation of children. (xv) Intermediaries must also put in place periodic reminders to children on the safe use of their platforms and the safety centres, privacy settings and help options available to them. They must display cautionary prompts where any child attempts to connect, message or interact with any unknown adult and appropriate warnings where any user enters any search term or query associated with CSEAM. (xvi) The Union and State Governments shall also create support mechanisms for victims such abuse or exploitation, whether online or otherwise. This includes ready access to counselling, psychological support and therapy by trained professionals, free of cost, for as long as may be necessary. Proper follow-up mechanisms shall also be put in place to oversee the continued wellbeing of victims.” Cause Title: Just Rights for Children Alliance & Anr. v. S. Harish & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2026 INSC 1149) Appearances: Applicant: Bhuwan Ribhu, Saksham Maheshwari, AOR, Shashi, Taruna Panwar, Surabhi Katyal, Aditi Bhardwaj, Sankalp Saxena, Advocates. Opposite Party: Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, Juristrust Law Offices, AOR, K.M. Nataraj, A.S.G., Madhulika Upadhyay, AOR, Aashna Gill, Vaibhav Dwivedi, Madhav Sinhal, Anuj Udupa, Abhaid Parikh, AOR, Sunita Sharma, AOR, Nidhi Sharma, Aman Jaiswal, Hari Om Singh, Advocates. Click here to read/download the Judgment

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