UPSC Mains 2025 GS2 Q18: model answer
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has to address the challenges faced by children in the digital era. Examine the existing policies and suggest measures the Commission can initiate to tackle the issue.
What the question wants
Digital-age risks for children, current laws and policies, and what NCPCR can do within its mandate.
How to structure it
Intro: NCPCR under the CPCR Act 2005. Body: (1) Challenges; (2) Existing framework; (3) Gaps; (4) Measures NCPCR can take. Conclusion: Protection must not mean exclusion.
- 1(1) Challenges
- 2(2) Existing framework
- 3(3) Gaps
- 4(4) Measures NCPCR can take
Model answer
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is a statutory body under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005. It monitors laws such as POCSO and the RTE Act. Children's lives are now largely online, and so are new threats.
Challenges
- Online sexual abuse, grooming and child sexual abuse material.
- Cyberbullying, addictive gaming and screen dependence affecting mental health.
- Data harvesting and targeted advertising.
- Digital divide in education seen during COVID-19.
Existing framework
- POCSO Act, 2012 and IT Act, 2000 (s.67B on child sexual material).
- IT Rules, 2021: platforms must remove such content quickly.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (s.9): verifiable parental consent for under-18s and no tracking or targeted ads to children.
- Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 banning real-money games.
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal; Supreme Court ruling in Just Rights for Children (2024) that viewing or storing child sexual material is an offence under POCSO.
Gaps: weak enforcement against overseas platforms, low awareness, few trained cyber police and counsellors.
Measures NCPCR can take
- Issue child online safety guidelines for schools and platforms; audit platforms' age-verification.
- Use its inquiry powers on complaints of online abuse; set up a dedicated cell with NCRB and I4C.
- Digital literacy with NCERT; counsellors in schools.
- Push 'safety by design' in rules under the DPDP Act.
- Annual report on children's digital well-being.
Protection must not mean exclusion; the goal is a safe internet in which children can still learn and play.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
CPCR Act 2005 POCSO DPDP Act s.9 IT Rules 2021 Online Gaming Act 2025 safety by design
Where most answers lose marks
- Ignoring NCPCR's actual powers.
- Only listing threats.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC question paper: https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/GENERAL-STUDIES-PAPER-II-QP-CSM-25-010925.pdf The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.