The internet has become an ordinary part of childhood, but the protections surrounding young users remain anything but ordinary. A new Kaspersky analysis offers a revealing picture of where Pakistani children are spending their time online. During the first eight months of 2026, YouTube accounted for 31.2% of their mobile app activity, followed by Instagram at 18.8% and WhatsApp at 17.4%. Multiplayer games and platforms such as Roblox and Discord also featured prominently in
Child Rights in Focus
• Indus Hospital officials say nine rabies deaths reported at health facility in 2025 • Seminar organised to promote rabies prevention and timely post-exposure treatment • Sindh chief secy says increase in reported cases reflects greater public awareness rather than mere rise in incidence KARACHI: As many as 28 cases of rabies — an invariably fatal disease once clinical symptoms appear — were reported at the Indus Hospital from January to September this year.
GWADAR: A private school came under attack in Kech district on Oct 2, officials said. Armed men entered the premises of Roshan Grammar School in the Menaz area of Buleda tehsil and opened fire, they said, adding that the school’s CCTV system was destroyed in the attack. Confirming the incident, the school’s director Zahoor Baloch told reporters that the attack was carried out during Friday prayers. Mr Baloch, who is currently in Karachi, said
CHARSADDA: Police arrested a man for assaulting a five-year-old boy here on Oct 2. According to the first information report (FIR), the incident took place in the Station Kallay area of Tangi. The child’s mother told police that her son returned home crying and alleged that a neighbour, identified as Hussainullah, had assaulted him. The child alleged that the suspect threatened him with consequences if he disclosed the incident to anyone. Police registered the
RAWALPINDI: A 10-year-old boy was found strangled inside his makeshift hut in the New Chakra area of Naseerabad police station on Thursday night, police said. Mohammad Bilal, 34, a resident of New Chakra, lodged an FIR with the police, saying he sold flower bouquets and lived in a makeshift tent on his piece of land. He said he had four children, including two daughters, and his elder son, Khurram Ali, was about 10 years
World Rabies Day passed earlier this week, and Sindh’s official figures tell the story of a province being chewed up by a completely preventable disease. At least 35 people have died of rabies in the first nine months of 2026, while dog-bite cases across Sindh have surged past 200,000, including more than 40,000 in Karachi alone. These numbers are objectively terrible and reflect the failure of provincial- and city-level policies to address rabies or
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Sep 30 sent a teenage suspect to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in a case of allegedly attempting to poison his father after seeking information about poisoning from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) produced the 17-year-old suspect before Judicial Magistrate Naeem Wattoo on the completion of his three-day physical remand. The magistrate asked the investigating officer (IO) whether the suspect’s father had
LAHORE: In a major step toward updating centuries-old personal laws, the Punjab Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights and Minority Affairs on Sep 30 unanimously approved the Christian Marriage Bill 2026, raising the minimum legal age of marriage for both bride and groom to 18 years and paving the way for mandatory official registration with Nadra (National Database and Registration Authority) and local union councils. The meeting, chaired by MPA Raheela Khadam Hussain, approved
QUETTA: Allah Dad, a resident of Dalbandin, along with his wife, has appealed to the Balochistan chief minister and top officials to transfer the case of rape and murder of their seven-year-old daughter in Noshki to the Special Court for Violence Against Women and Children in Quetta. Speaking at a press conference here, Mr Dad said that last month he and his family had travelled from Dalbandin to Noshki to attend the fateha of
The sight of a school van reduced to a burnt-out shell in Murree should be enough to dispel any illusion that Pakistan’s existing approach to school transport is working. Children travelling to a school on Tuesday suffered burns after their van left the road and caught fire. Preliminary reports indicate that the vehicle was carrying more passengers than its designated capacity and did not have a fire extinguisher. The incident raises a basic question.
RAWALPINDI: Following the school van fire incident in Murree, the City Traffic Police has formed special squads to check fire safety arrangements in public service and school vans to prevent such incidents in future. A spokesman for the City Traffic Police Murree said in a press release that, on the orders of District Police Officer Murree Raza Tanveer Sipra and Chief Traffic Officer Murree Munir Ahmed Hashmi, special squads of traffic wardens had been formed to
ABBOTTABAD: The Abbottabad Bench of the Peshawar High Court has dismissed a post-arrest bail petition filed by Shahrukh Habib, an accused in a case involving the alleged rape of a minor girl, observing that the material available on record at this stage provided reasonable grounds to connect the petitioner with the alleged occurrence. Justice Syed Mudasser Ameer passed the order while deciding Criminal Miscellaneous Petition, filed by Shahrukh Habib against the State and another.