SUPREME COURT DEMANDS STRONGER DIGITAL SAFEGUARDS, SCHOOL EDUCATION AND PLATFORM ACCOUNTABILITY TO PROTECT CHILDREN ONLINE
October 21, 2026
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 21: The Supreme Court has directed the Centre, state governments and educational authorities to strengthen measures against the circulation of child sexual exploitation and abuse material online, expressing serious concern that limited progress has been made despite its earlier directions in 2024.
A bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran issued a series of directions after hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Just Rights for Children Alliance. The petition highlighted the continued circulation of child sexual exploitation and abuse material across social media platforms and called for a more effective mechanism to address the problem.
The court has called for digital safety and age-appropriate sex education to become part of the core school curriculum. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) have been directed to develop the curriculum in consultation with child psychologists, educators and parenting experts. The educational material should be adapted to different literacy levels and include written lessons, illustrations and audio-visual resources.
The bench has also directed that information about existing assistance and reporting mechanisms be prominently displayed across educational institutions. Details of Child Helpline 1098, the cybercrime helpline 1930, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and state-level nodal officers must be made available in classrooms, hostels, libraries and computer laboratories, as well as on the websites of schools and other educational institutions.
Another key component of the directions concerns the prevention of access to harmful online material. The court said devices and networks within schools and educational institutions should be equipped with proportionate filtering mechanisms. Such safeguards should also extend to hostels, childcare institutions, tuition centres and coaching establishments, with particular attention to the risks faced by children in these environments.
The court has emphasised that teachers and other school personnel need appropriate training to recognise the warning signs of online grooming, abuse and harassment. Staff members must understand how to respond when a child discloses abuse, their reporting obligations under Sections 19 and 21 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the importance of maintaining confidentiality. Non-teaching staff must also be sensitised to respond appropriately to such situations.
The Supreme Court has additionally directed the Union government to submit an affidavit detailing the technological tools and other measures adopted by online intermediaries to detect and remove child sexual exploitation and abuse material from their platforms.
To improve the identification and removal of such content, the Centre has been asked to frame appropriate guidelines or a standard operating procedure for significant social media intermediaries. These measures are to cover perceptual hash matching, which can help identify known material through digital fingerprints, and the use of URL lists to locate prohibited content.
The court has also directed the creation of a National Hash and URL List Database dedicated to detecting and removing child sexual exploitation and abuse material. The database may be established within the existing Sahyog Portal or maintained as a separate repository.
In a further move towards platform accountability, the bench said the Centre should consider a framework for imposing exemplary monetary penalties on intermediaries that breach their obligations under the Information Technology Act and its rules. Any such penalties should take into account the seriousness, duration and recurrence of the violation, as well as the size and turnover of the intermediary concerned.
The court has also addressed the commercial exploitation of abusive material. Where prohibited content is hosted, uploaded, promoted or circulated through a paywall or subscription arrangement from which an intermediary earns revenue, the revenue derived from that content should be forfeited. Intermediaries must ensure that such material, including other content likely to harm children, is not offered or circulated through paid services.
The directions reflect the court’s concern that protecting children online requires more than removing individual posts after they are reported. Prevention through education, accessible reporting channels, trained school personnel, technological detection and meaningful accountability for online platforms must operate together.
The latest intervention follows the court’s observation that its 2024 directions had not produced sufficient progress. The implementation of the new measures will now require coordinated action by the Centre, state governments, educational bodies and digital intermediaries to strengthen safeguards against online child abuse.
