perspective-child sexual abuse

Unveiling Deepfakes

Laila* first met Adeel* at a fine dining restaurant along the coastline of Karachi city, after eight months of online dating on Instagram. She was then 20, he 21. The two talked for hours as the golden sun set, meeting the horizon of the sea. Laila described Adeel as the kindest, most caring man she ever met, and wanted to…

A Silent Epidemic: Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Thirteen-year-old Asim* was quieter than usual when he returned to his home in Jhelum from a motorcycle mechanic’s workshop after completing his first day as a chotu – a term widely used for apprentices. His father, a rickshaw driver, noticed but casually asked about his day at his new workplace…
child abuse

Normalising Abuse

There is something deeply wrong with how easily Pakistan has learned to absorb horrific news. Sahil, an organisation working towards developing an environment free from child abuse and neglect, has recently released figures revealing that 3,630 cases of child abuse were reported in 2025, which is an 8 percent rise…
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AI and the Child

Artificial intelligence is quietly shaping a generation’s thinking. Children are increasingly using AI tools to answer questions, complete assignments and tackle problems that once required reflection and research. What appears to be efficiency may also be altering the way thinking itself develops. This shift is unfolding within a generation shaped…
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Children Betrayed

JUST when we thought Pakistan had made meaningful progress and the debate on child marriage was nearly settled, a spanner has been thrown into the spokes of reform. Four years after the Federal Shariat Court’s ruling in 2021 that setting a minimum marriage age is not in contradiction with Islam,…
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Digital Sexual Exploitation

As the international world processes the heinous amounts of child sexual abuse data released from the Epstein files, at home the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency of FIA has uncovered a major network involved in the sexual exploitation of children via blackmail. A prime suspect, hailing from Murree, has been…
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For Distressed Children, Railway Stations Become a Refuge

LAHORE: Railway stations across Pakistan are increasingly becoming refuge points for children fleeing troubled homes, as poverty, domestic tensions, corporal punishment, and the influence of social media push minors onto the streets. According to official data shared by Pakistan Railways Police, 658 children, including 413 boys and 245 girls, were…
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Beyond the CRC review

Pakistan’s sixth and seventh periodic review before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), held in Geneva on January 15-16, 2026, marked an important moment of reflection and accountability, examining progress made since the previous review in 2016. More than a formal reporting obligation, the review…
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Custody Without Protection

The reported gang rape of a minor girl in Jacobabad by policemen in custody is a failure of procedure that demands serious institutional reckoning. Furthermore, the subsequent arrest of six policemen is being presented as proof that the system works. It is not. Accountability that begins and ends with junior…
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The Horrors of AI

The year 2026 started on an alarming note regarding the use of artificial intelligence. One of the viral cases these days is Britain’s media regulator investigation into Elon Musk’s X over concerns its Grok AI chatbot was creating sexually intimate deepfake images in violation of its duty to protect people…
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Ghost Commitments: Pakistan’s Child Rights Crisis

This year on Universal Children’s Day, as Pakistan prepares for its 2025 review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, I’m forced to reflect on a 35-year-old promise. In 1990, Pakistan was one of the six initiators of the World Summit for Children, a champion for the…
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Plight of Children

The plight of children in Pakistan can be gauged by a recent report that says that in the first six months of 2025, over 4,000 cases of violence against children were reported in Punjab alone. Perhaps even more concerning is that the report by Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) is…
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