PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN CYBERSPACE

The rapid and unregulated growth of cyberspace has quite a bit increased the risk to children, leaving them very susceptible to various kinds of tech-facilitated trauma and exploitation. About this, the paper maps out the major facets of cybercrimes against children in India and explains the working mechanisms and effects on the psyche of the victims of the new digital threats, such as, cyber grooming cyberbullying child pornography (CSAM), digital image morphing using artificial intelligence, predatory sexting, social trolling, cyberstalking, and addictive online gaming algorithms. For assessing the protective mechanisms, the paper studies India's legal system at different levels and identifies the joint interpretative readings of the Information Technology Act 2000 (Sections 66, 67, and 67B) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 (Sections 11-16). All in all, the paper offers an in-depth analysis of the recent judicial trends and electronic evidence standards (Section 63 BSA 2023) through seminal judgments like Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish (2024), Nipun Saxena, State of Maharashtra v. S, Rajesh Gambhir (2025), and the latest high court interventions on algorithmic grooming and deepfake extortion.