When discussions around sexual harassment arise, the focus often remains on physical or verbal misconduct. These forms of harassment continue to be prevalent and demand urgent attention. Yet, rapid digitisation of our lives has given rise to an equally serious but often overlooked threat – online sexual harassment including online grooming. Unlike traditional forms of abuse, online harassment can occur anonymously, transcend geographical boundaries, and target individuals at any time, often without warning. It can strip victims of their dignity, privacy, personal information, and confidence in an instant.
Statistics on cybercrime
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India registered 1,01,928 cybercrime cases in 2024, marking a 17% increase over the previous year. Importantly, these figures represent only the reported cases, suggesting that the actual prevalence of cybercrime is significantly higher.
One common misconception is that cybercrime primarily affects those who are less technologically aware. However, cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to target even highly educated professionals and senior executives. For instance, in 2024, the Chairman of the Vardhman Group was reportedly defrauded of ₹7 crore after fraudsters subjected him to a fake “digital arrest” while impersonating officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently cautioned organisations about the emerging “boss scam“, in which fraudsters impersonate senior executives through email, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, and social media platforms to deceive employees into transferring funds.
Although financial cyber fraud and online sexual exploitation are distinct offences, both illustrate how cybercriminals exploit trust, technology, and anonymity. If experienced corporate leaders can become victims of sophisticated online deception, children and young adults are even more vulnerable to digitally facilitated sexual exploitation.
Online Grooming: An Emerging Form of Sexual Exploitation
Parents and educators have long emphasised concepts such as “stranger danger” and “good touch, bad touch” to protect children from sexual abuse. However, these conversations must now extend to the digital world, where online grooming has become an increasingly common method of child sexual exploitation. Children today are not only vulnerable on social media platforms but also on seemingly harmless online gaming platforms, messaging applications, and virtual chat rooms.
Online grooming refers to the process by which an offender gradually develops a relationship with a child with the intention of sexually abusing or exploiting them, either online, offline, or both.
Traditional methods of luring children, such as offering sweets or gifts, have increasingly been replaced by digital incentives including gaming rewards, virtual currency, premium skins, exclusive content, or invitations to private gaming communities.
Some common methods employed by online groomers include:
- Excessive praise and emotional validation: Perpetrators often shower children with compliments, attention, and emotional support, particularly when the child lacks adequate parental attention or does not perceive their caregivers as a safe space.
- Offering virtual rewards: Exclusive gaming rewards, premium memberships, in-game currency, or tournament invitations are frequently used to build trust and dependency.
- Gradually introducing sexual content: Offenders slowly introduce sexual jokes, innuendos, conversations, or explicit content, carefully observing the child’s reaction before escalating the interaction.
- Normalising inappropriate behaviour: Some online games or communities contain sexually explicit or misogynistic content that may desensitise children to inappropriate conduct and gradually make abusive behaviour appear acceptable.
- Encouraging secrecy: Children are often persuaded to keep conversations hidden from parents, teachers, or friends, thereby increasing the offender’s control over the relationship.
- Coercion and blackmail: Once personal information, photographs, or private conversations are obtained, offenders may threaten to expose them unless the child complies with further demands.
- The “scattergun” approach: Some offenders simultaneously employ several of these tactics or target multiple children at once in the hope that some will respond.
Illustrative Cases
Incidents of online grooming frequently go unreported due to fear, trauma, shame, and social stigma. Nevertheless, several cases continue to emerge.
In one case reported in June 2026, an Indian national residing in the United Kingdom admitted to grooming a 14-year-old girl online. He allegedly arranged to meet her in person and even asked her to transfer money to book a hotel room before later admitting his conduct and apologising.
In another instance, a 13-year-old boy befriended an individual claiming to be a 15-year-old student through an online multiplayer battle game. After weeks of regular interaction, the stranger offered exclusive game skins and entry into a special tournament, requesting a small registration fee because the platform’s international payment system was supposedly unavailable. The child secretly used his parent’s UPI account to make the payment. Thereafter, the demands escalated, accompanied by threats to suspend his gaming account and disclose their private conversations to his classmates unless additional payments were made.
These examples demonstrate how online grooming often begins with trust-building rather than overt threats, making it difficult for children, and sometimes even parents to recognise the danger until exploitation has already begun.
Why Do Individuals Engage in Online Grooming?
While protecting victims remains the foremost priority, understanding the factors that contribute to offending behaviour is equally important in developing effective prevention strategies.
Research suggests that several factors may contribute to online grooming behaviour, including:
- difficulty in establishing or maintaining healthy intimate relationships offline;
- mental health concerns arising from adverse life experiences, unhealthy coping mechanisms, or emotional distress. Contributing factors may include early exposure to pornography, bereavement, difficult adolescence, previous experiences of abuse, workplace stress, relationship breakdowns, or chronic sleep disturbances; and
- the perception that online interactions are somehow less “real” than face to face interactions and therefore carry fewer moral or legal consequences.
Understanding these factors does not excuse criminal conduct, rather, it helps informed prevention strategies.
The Legal Position on Online Grooming in India
India currently does not expressly define or criminalise online grooming as a standalone offence.
However, certain provisions address aspects of such conduct.
Section 67B(c) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 penalises any person who:
“cultivates, entices or induces children to online relationship with one or more children for and on sexually explicit act or in a manner that may offend a reasonable adult on the computer resource.”
Similarly, Section 11(vi) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 provides that a person commits sexual harassment upon a child when, with sexual intent, they:
“entice a child for pornographic purposes or give gratification therefor.”
Although these provisions address certain aspects of online child sexual exploitation, they do not comprehensively criminalise every stage of online grooming, particularly where online interactions are intended to facilitate future physical abuse without any immediate sexually explicit communication.
The borderless nature of the internet further complicates enforcement. Victims, offenders, digital platforms, servers, and electronic evidence may all be located in different jurisdictions, requiring extensive international cooperation. Differences in domestic laws, investigative procedures, and mutual legal assistance mechanisms often make prosecution particularly challenging.
Preventing Reoffending
Interestingly, research involving individuals convicted of online grooming has identified several factors that may reduce the likelihood of reoffending. Some of the factors are as follows:
- having a trusted support system with whom they could openly discuss their thoughts and struggles. Many acknowledged that they had not confided in anyone before their arrest;
- recognising the devastating impact of their actions on victims, as well as on their own families, partners, and children;
- receiving timely access to therapy and developing healthier coping mechanisms; and
- understanding that the individual they were communicating with online was a real person capable of experiencing genuine psychological harm.
These findings highlight the importance of early intervention, mental health support, and rehabilitation alongside criminal justice measures.
The Way Forward
India has taken several important steps towards combating cybercrime, including:
- establishing the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) to facilitate reporting of cyber offences;
- launching the toll-free cybercrime helpline (1930);
- creating the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to strengthen coordination among law enforcement agencies;
- conducting public awareness campaigns through the Ministry of Home Affairs; and
- issuing guidelines for schools regarding safe internet practices, including the installation of firewalls, monitoring software, and robust cybersecurity policies.
Despite these initiatives, significant gaps remain. Public awareness is uneven, legal provisions have not fully kept pace with technological developments, and effective enforcement is often hindered by the transnational nature of cybercrime.
Accordingly, the following measures merit serious consideration:
- Revising existing legislation or enacting a dedicated legal framework specifically addressing online grooming and other emerging forms of digital sexual exploitation.
- Strengthening international cooperation through binding multinational agreements to facilitate investigation, evidence-sharing, and prosecution.
- Incorporating digital citizenship and internet safety as mandatory components of school curriculam.
- Equipping parents, teachers, and caregivers with the knowledge necessary to identify risk factors, recognise warning signs, and respond appropriately.
- Expanding access to confidential, non-judgemental counselling and early intervention services before situations escalate into criminal investigations.
Conclusion
Technology has transformed the way we communicate, learn, work, and socialise. Unfortunately, it has also created new avenues for sexual exploitation and abuse. Protecting both adults and children from online sexual harassment and grooming requires a coordinated response involving legislators, law enforcement agencies, educators, parents, technology companies, and civil society.
Strengthening legal frameworks alone will not be sufficient. Digital literacy, open communication within families, responsible online behaviour, and accessible support systems are equally essential. Parents and educators should encourage children to discuss their online experiences without fear of blame or punishment, enabling early identification of risks and timely intervention.
