Help keep children safe online

• 95% of Indian parents are concerned about screen addiction in children (Business Standard, 2024).

• 1 in 3 parents in India say their children are becoming aggressive and depressed due to social media and gaming addictions (News Nine, 2023).

• 42% of children below the age of 12 spend up to 4 hours daily glued to screens (Times of India, 2023)

• NCRB reported a 32% surge in cybercrimes against children, including the distribution of child pornography and harassment in 2022.

• Every day, India reports more than 500 sextortion cases (with less than 0.5% per cent officially registered as FIRs)

Children in India are increasingly becoming victims of a wide host of active and passive harms online facilitated by ‘junk-tech’ i.e., tech designed to harvest children’s attention. The direct harms include cyberbullying, grooming, sextortion, drugs targeting, and indirect harms include screen addiction, loss of focus, isolation & confidence issues, increased self-harm & violent behaviour, online child sexual abuse, and behaviour manipulation.

We at Citizen Digital Foundation equip children, schools, and families with the knowledge and tools required to navigate the digital landscape safely so they can learn and grow online without falling prey to targeted harms. CDF’s activities like Good Tech Squad and Youth Dialogue Forum in schools and colleges help students engage critically with the technologies they use. And our virtual and in-person information literacy sessions for teachers, parents, and employees help them find a healthy online balance at work and home.

We have come a long way from where we started in 2021, but given the increase in online issues, we need to build more knowledge and resources to handle the demand for our work. As one of the few organisations addressing this complex and emerging challenge in India, we need your support to expand the reach and impact of our work along, so that we can empower more homes and families like yours to become digitally informed and resilient.

Read our Youth Dialogue Forum Report: https://citizendigitalfoundation.org/publications/youth-dialogue-forum/

Read our report on indirect harms to children on YouTube: https://citizendigitalfoundation.org/publications/the-youtube-rabbit-hole-the-barrage-of-inappropriate-content-on-youtube-in-india-and-the-myth-of-child-safety/

See the report of our work in 23-24: https://citizendigitalfoundation.org/annual-reports/cdf-annual-report-2023-2024/

Visit our website to know more: https://citizendigitalfoundation.org/