Why digital literacy is important for children's safety in hyperreal online world

Parenting has never been simple, but today, it’s something else entirely.

It’s no longer just about bedtime stories and scraped knees. It’s about unread messages, deleted search histories, and an invisible world behind every screen.

 

In many homes, when a child is “too online”, the instinct is to take away the phone. Cut the internet. Pull the plug. But what we often don’t realise is this: that one impulsive act may do more than disrupt a routine, it may fracture a child’s right. The right to learn. The right to participate. The right to be protected in the very space they now inhabit, the internet.

 

Because for this generation, the online world isn’t just a playground, it’s their classroom, their stage, their diary, and their lifeline. And in this new world, the rules of parenting must evolve.

 

French sociologist Jean Baudrillard once observed that in the modern world, we no longer experience reality directly, we experience its simulation. These simulations, fed to us by media, images, and now algorithms, start to feel more real than the real itself. This is known as hyperreality. Our children are growing up inside it. They laugh in GIFs, cry in comments, and play in pixels. Their friendships, fears, identities, even their worldviews are shaped not in schoolyards, but on screens.

 

What does it mean to protect a child whose very reality is mediated by devices? What does it mean to ensure rights for someone whose playground is also a platform?

These are no longer philosophical questions. They are urgent policy, legal, and parenting dilemmas.

 

The call to rethink parenting in a digital, hyperreal world found its voice at a recent national dialogue in Guwahati, at Infantia, India’s first on children’s rights in the digital age, co-hosted by Assam Police Sishu Mitra and PIIR Foundation.

Raising a child now isn’t about less screen time, it’s about more safe time. Not control, connection. Not parenting harder, parenting differently. Conversations over curfews. Curiosity over panic. Understanding what lives behind the screen, then building trust strong enough to face it together.

 

Parenting now means more than setting curfews. It means starting conversations. It means growing with your child, not by fighting the screen, but by understanding the world flickering behind it.A fresh wave of laws is reshaping how children access the internet safely in India, placing parents at the centre, and correctly so.

 

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires parental consent before a child’s data can be processed. The Online Gaming Act, 2025 casts parents as referees of children’s play online. Together, these laws carry a clear message: children deserve safe digital spaces.

 

The laws themselves are solid, but this safety will only work if parents understand what's on the table.

 

Being the gatekeeper isn’t just a checkbox; it’s knowing why consent matters, spotting addictive loops, understanding how data footprints last.

 

Parents cannot use just the key without the map. To make these laws matter, the script needs to be flipped: parents equipped with digital literacy, walked through what permissions really mean, understand how game mechanics and data tracking actually work.

 

The laws give structure that parents can bring effortlessly, beautifully to life.

 

The digital playground, and its perils

 

The internet is no longer a place they visit. It’s where they live, learn, laugh, and sometimes, hurt. With a device in hand, children are exposed to wonders, but also to whispers they cannot understand, to pressure they cannot name, and to harm they cannot escape alone.

 

From cyber grooming and identity theft to manipulation by online predators and exposure to radical online subcultures, the threats today are cloaked not in darkness, but in notifications.

 

A child glued to their phone may not be 'just bored'. They may be lonely. Anxious. Trapped in compulsive scrolling. This is Problematic Internet Use (PIU), a silent epidemic where online activities begin to erode emotional wellbeing, academic focus, and even relationships. A teenager who can’t sleep without checking who viewed their story may not be chasing attention, but affirmation. A child who lashes out when the WiFi is off may not be addicted to games, but to a space where they feel seen. And yet, many parents still ask: “How much screen time is okay?” when the better question is: “What are they escaping from?”

 

The solution isn’t digital detox. It’s digital literacy, emotional safety, and above all, belonging. When children feel heard, they stop searching for affirmation in likes. When children feel protected, they stop hiding what hurts them online.

 

The recent Netflix docuseries on teenage digital subcultures reminded us that teens aren’t looking to rebel, they are just trying to belong. When real-world validation is absent, the algorithm steps in. Adolescents fall into extremist content, eating disorder communities, incel forums, not because they are deviant, but because they are vulnerable.

 

And in that vulnerability, we need adults, not just parents, designers, lawmakers, and police, who are listening, learning, and standing by them.

But it isn’t just parents or policymakers who must evolve. Our schools and educators must, too. The classroom cannot remain disconnected from the hyperreal world that children navigate outside it. We need digital policies in schools that empower rather than punish or restrict, that teach children how to navigate risk, identity, misinformation, privacy, and digital consent. Instead of bans and blacklists, we need curricula that speak the language of today’s internet: from memes to media literacy, from screen addiction to cyber empathy. Teachers must be equipped not only to spot online harm but to spark critical thinking about the platforms shaping their students' worldviews.

 

Because education in the digital age isn’t just about subjects, it’s about survival, voice, and choice in a world that’s always online.

 

The rights framework we need

 

India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). These rights, survival, development, protection, and participation, must extend into the digital world.

 

But we have miles to go.

 

Today, children are being profiled by AI systems they don’t understand. They are targeted by ads, trolled in games, harassed in DMs, and taught by YouTube before they are taught by school. Their internet rights are not a bonus. They are fundamental rights, reimagined for the times we live in. We must stop treating the internet as a threat to childhood, and start treating it as part of childhood. That means:

 

• Designing platforms that prioritise children’s well-being, not just profit
   

• Educating children about privacy, consent, and digital safety in school curricula
   

• Training law enforcement to handle online harms against children sensitively and swiftly
   

• Holding tech companies accountable for the ecosystems they create
   

• And yes, building homes and communities where children are safe enough to speak
   

Because rights are not just something written into law, they are something children must feel every time they go online.

 

The future is not just screen time

 

The hyperreality is here to stay. But that doesn’t mean rights must disappear.  It means we must evolve our approach, as parents, as policymakers, as a society. Let us stop asking if the internet is good or bad.  Let us start asking: who is the internet good for? Who does it include? Who does it protect?

 

Let us raise not just smart kids, but strong, safe, and self-aware digital citizens. Let us not parent with fear, but with empathy and literacy. Let us not write policies that react to harm, but ones that prevent it.

 

And above all, let us not treat children as passive users of the internet, but as rights-holders, deserving of protection, participation, and voice in the very systems shaping their future. In this ever-scrolling hyperreal world, let us not forget what children need most is not a perfect app, but a compassionate adult.

 

One who sees the screen, but also sees the child behind it.

Harmeet Singh is IPS, DGP, Assam Police, and Salik Khan is the founder, PIIR Foundation.

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