The Internet's Double-Edged Sword

Today, children in many Indian households sit for hours glued to screens—playing games, creating videos, or scrolling social media. It might look innocent or even enjoyable, but a new threat lies in wait, often unseen. The internet, as useful as it is, has also become a platform for exploitation, trauma, and mental illness, particularly for children.

Children no longer grow up in their own social spaces. Rather than playing in playgrounds or learning youth culture from age-relevant media, they are plugged into adult-dominated media such as Instagram, TikTok, and Discord from the beginning. Without a digital playground of their own, children learn to imitate adults, adopting their behaviors, insecurities, and worries. What was once a gradual learning curve is now an immediate dive into a hyper-intense online environment that calls for attention, perfection, and loyalty.

A Glimpse of the Future: More Integrated, Less Human

Although children today are more wired than ever, this perpetual online engagement too frequently takes its toll on real-life human connections. In contrast to their parents' generation, which came of age with face-to-face talk, outside playing, and neighborhood gatherings, today's youth spend a significant portion of social time staring at screens—texting, gaming, and browsing social media streams. This virtual closeness can be shallow, devoid of the warmth, empathy, and subtlety of face-to-face relationships. The convenience of online communication sometimes breeds isolation, as actual emotional connections have trouble developing or intensifying. Parents, by contrast, had slower but more substantial social interactions that allowed them to develop resilience, social skills, and a sense of belonging—factors that are more and more in jeopardy in today's fast-paced, screen-dominated world that children live in.

The "Sephora Kids" Phenomenon and What It Truly Is

"Sephora Kids" is a phrase that originated on the internet to refer to young kids applying costly adult skincare. Children were online a lot more during the pandemic, watching influencers, most of whom equated beauty with success. But more than skincare, this phenomenon is revealing of something more profound: a disintegrating division between childhood and adulthood.

The word, coined last year in a lighthearted manner on social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram, describes preteens who are addicted to high-end adult skin care. From glycolic acid to retinol, kids today are involved in routines once limited to anti-aging treatments. The trend went wild during the pandemic, with children viewing hours of influencer content that quietly (and sometimes openly) imparted to them messages connecting beauty and success with attention and achievement. It is not a Western trend, because it has sunk deep roots in Indian metros. Dermatologists in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore complain about rising numbers of consultations from worried parents whose 10-year-old children develop skin rashes on exposure to serums for adult skin. This frenzy is molding self-worth beyond the body. Data from the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (2022) indicates that body dysmorphia rose sharply in 10-14-year-old girls over the past five years, along with escalated screen time and exposure to filtered beauty content.

When a 10-year-old sees 25-year-olds discussing anti-aging cream, their idea of beauty, value, and identity becomes distorted. The kid doesn't necessarily desire smooth skin—they crave affirmation. Social media pays attention to filtered beauty, and kids seek that at any expense.

Cyberbullying and Digital Harm

Cyberbullying is perhaps the most devastating consequence of premature, unfiltered web exposure. Comment sections, direct messages, and social media algorithms assault children with being bullied, taunted, ostracized, and harassed. Algorithms feed them destructive content that amplifies their insecurities and disseminates hate. The notorious Facebook case study demonstrated how the application fueled adolescents' depression, including 13-year-olds, by feeding beauty comparisons, toxic influencers, and negative self-speech into their timelines. Kids started to feel less than—less pretty, less fun, less enough.

The impacts are devastating: shortened attention spans, depression, chronic anxiety, and soaring incidence of body dysmorphia. Online fads—whether it's the latest filter, the latest challenge that's suicidal, or the latest unattainable ideal—spread quickly, frequently being popular before adults have even heard about them. And once it takes off, it becomes a blueprint for young minds eager to be part of the in-crowd.

Digital Grooming and Perilous Influencers

Social media has turned into a hunting ground for predators. Grooming may start in gaming chats, Discord servers, or Instagram DMs. Children, seeking validation or friendship, are slowly manipulated, sometimes never even aware that they are being targeted. With little regulation or good age-gating on these platforms, predators roam freely, inflicting severe trauma that children then endure alone.

The emergence of poisonous online personas, such as Andrew Tate and other such influencers, also demonstrates how impressionable young minds are targeted. These personalities endorse misogyny, hegemony, and skewed concepts of success. They entertain but also indoctrinate. Children, particularly those who are searching for identity or belonging, are extremely impressionable and easily drawn in by such ideologies, often unknowingly. Political analysts and online "pundits" follow similar tactics, disseminating propaganda and influencing children's perception of the world, one video at a time.

Gaming: Fun, But at What Cost?

Games like Free Fire, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG/BGMI, Fortnite, and Valorant are more than just fun. Many children spend 6 to 10 hours daily gaming. Within these games, bullying is rampant—teammates may scream abuse, opponents mock failure, and forums can be toxic. This kind of bullying, mixed with addictive game design, can shatter self-esteem and increase emotional dependence on the virtual world.

Children report preferring online avatars over real-life relationships. The result: physical health suffers, real-world communication weakens, and emotional development is stunted. A 2023 report by the Public Health Foundation of India found a 26% rise in obesity among urban youth due to a lack of physical activity, much of it driven by screen addiction.

Data from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) suggests that prolonged screen time of as often as 6 to 10 hours a day is the new norm for urban boys between 10 and 16 years. These hours consist of online games with addictive reward mechanisms, poisonous competitive cultures, and minimal physical activity. Most boys say they prefer virtual avatars to real-life relationships. As a result, obesity, bad posture, sleep deprivation, and even mild depression are on the rise.

Urban male youth have witnessed a 26% increase in overweight/obesity levels over the last ten years, as per a 2023 report by the Public Health Foundation of India, and this is squarely due to sedentary lifestyles.

In a chilling case in 2022, a 13-year-old Gujarat boy was coerced into sharing personal pictures via an instant messaging application by another boy who was falsely claiming to be a friend. The victim was then blackmailed into transferring money from a parent's UPI account. By the time it was revealed, significant psychological damage had already been done. Such reports aren't unique.

The Delhi Cyber Cell of police reported that children under 18 comprised almost 16% of victims in the reported sextortion cases in 2023. Additionally, such entertainment platforms normally don't use strict child verification processes, facilitating predators to target children easily.

Children click phishing links without knowing, install ransomware programs, or are tricked by gaming apps requesting permissions for the camera and microphone, intruding profoundly into their privacy.

The Rural Risk: Lack of Awareness

Even as city India grapples with an overabundance of digital stimulation, rural India is under attack by something else—unawareness. With the price of smartphones falling and data plans affordable, even smaller towns and villages are seeing digital penetration. But learning about safety lags behind. All the children in such places use common devices within the family, hence it becomes harder to monitor their activity. One reported case from Uttar Pradesh is of a 12-year-old who had installed an app that ended up causing unauthorized UPI transactions. The family was unaware of how it happened and did not report the matter, assuming it was a "technical error."

Lacking fundamental digital literacy, the youth of such regions are left vulnerable to scams, graphic violence, and fake information. In contrast to their city-dwelling counterparts, they are not exposed to school counselors, awareness sessions, or even parents who grasp the dangers.

What Can Be Done?

• Teach Cyber Safety Early: Schools and families must make cyber safety part of regular learning. CBSE’s Cyber Safety Curriculum (2023) is a good start, but it needs stronger implementation.
• Make Tools Easier to Use: Parental control apps must be simplified and available in regional languages. Child-safe modes should be the default setting on websites.
• Support Mental Health: Emotional harm is still harm. Schools should offer counseling and mental health workshops. Government partnerships with programs like Fortis Mental Health can help.
• Update Cyber Laws: India needs a child-centered cyber safety law that focuses on protection and prevention. UN child rights frameworks should be added to the Indian IT Act.
• Involve Communities: Local institutions—schools, community centers, religious places—can host training and discussions to spread awareness.

Reclaiming Childhood, Reflecting Our World

The internet is here to stay, an undeniable facet of modern life. But how it molds our children—how they view themselves, how they interact, how they manage their emotions and well-being—rests entirely on the lines we set and the critical discussions we have. This isn't some distant threat; cybercrime, alongside the broader psychological impacts of online exposure, is here, now, and preying on the most vulnerable. From exquisitely filtered beauty posts assuring children they're not enough, to video games that consume their time and health, to predators who prey on innocence, to the insidious spread of harmful ideologies—unfiltered online exposure is fundamentally revolutionizing childhood.

Children, in their raw vulnerability and rapid development, often serve as extreme versions of tiny adults. They mirror our behaviors, absorb our societal norms, and amplify our unspoken truths. They feel more intensely, express more openly, and in the digital crucible, they become more—more anxious, more comparing, more susceptible to the narratives around them. If we observe how our children, gazing at our digital world, are growing up—their escalating body dysmorphia, their pervasive anxieties, their struggles with attention and real-world connection—it's a stark reflection.

Perhaps, then, this is not just a crisis of "children and the internet," but a profound moment for us, as adults and as a society, to look deeply into the mirror. It compels us to question: if the systems and norms of our digital society are so fundamentally unfit for child consumption, to the extent that they inflict deep psychological and emotional harm, that they rob children of their authentic spaces and unburdened growth, then what does that say about our world? What does it say about the content we create, the platforms we enable, and the priorities we uphold?

The urgency for preventive actions to catch up with reactive panic is no longer just about protecting children; it's about acknowledging that a world truly safe for children online reflects a healthier, more responsible society offline. Ultimately, every child deserves the freedom to grow, learn, and connect without fear—and that includes the online world they've inherited. This imperative demands not just vigilance, but a fundamental re-evaluation of the digital legacy we are building for the next generation.

To report cybercrime or seek help, log on to https://cybercrime.gov.in/ or call the toll-free helpline at 1930.

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