In this Digital Child Rights Monitor we give insight how the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) addressed digital child rights in its 2026 Concluding Observations on Pakistan. The urgency scale reflects how strongly the CRC highlights an issue in its recommendations — the higher the score, the bigger or more pressing the problem. This scale helps visualize which digital child rights issues the CRC considers most urgent and where Pakistan faces its greatest challenges. If a country gets a low urgency score it does not necessarily mean the country is doing good, it just means the CRC made little to no mention to it.
Summary
High Priority
Violence & Exploitation Online (24) emerges as the most pressing priority, driven by very high scores for online sexual exploitation (CSAM) and significant attention to trafficking and exploitation and online harassment. Infrastructure & Capacity (16) also stands out as a high-priority area, reflecting substantial focus on cybercrime and cybersecurity laws and digitalized systems.
High Priority
Privacy & Data Protection (7) and Online Safety & Protection (6) receive moderate attention. The focus on data protection, children’s digital privacy rights, safeguarding policies, and awareness campaigns suggests growing recognition of both data governance and protective frameworks.
Low Priority
Digital Access & Participation (3) and Digital Health & Well-being (2) receive limited attention. Concerns related to access, inclusion, and mental health are acknowledged, but remain secondary compared to protection and system-level priorities..
Overview themes
Digital Access & Participation
Digital Health & Well-Being
Infrastructure & Capacity
Online Safety & Protection
Privacy & Data Protection
Violence & Exploitation Online
Violence & Exploitation Online dominates the landscape, highlighting serious concerns related to exploitation, trafficking, and online harassment. Infrastructure & Capacity also receives strong attention, reflecting a focus on strengthening legal frameworks and digital systems. Privacy & Data Protection and Online Safety & Protection show moderate development, with increasing attention to safeguarding and data governance. In contrast, Digital Access & Participation and Digital Health & Well-being receive comparatively limited focus, indicating gaps in inclusion and wellbeing-related issues.
Violence and exploitation
Trafficking / exploitation through digital platforms
Discriminatory Violence
Online Harrasment and Bullying
Online sexual exploitation / CSAM
Violence & Exploitation Online is the most prominent theme (24), with very strong emphasis on online sexual exploitation (CSAM), as well as attention to trafficking and exploitation, online harassment, and discriminatory violence. This highlights a broad range of serious risks faced by children online. The distribution suggests exploitation-related harms are considered the most urgent challenge.
Infrastructure and capacity
Digitalized systems
Cybercrime and cybersecurity laws
Training of professionals on online offences
Infrastructure & Capacity is a high-priority theme (16), with strong emphasis on cybercrime and cybersecurity laws, followed by digitalized systems and training of professionals. This reflects substantial attention to strengthening legal frameworks and technical systems. The distribution suggests cybersecurity is the dominant concern within this theme.
Digital health and wellbeing
Digital Health & Well-being receives limited attention (2), focused solely on mental health impacts. This indicates some awareness of the effects digital environments may have on children’s wellbeing. However, the absence of support services and screen time concerns suggests a narrow scope.
Online safety and protection
Online Safety & Protection receives moderate attention (6), with focus on safeguarding policies and accountability in digital media and awareness campaigns on safe internet use. This indicates growing recognition of preventive and protective measures. However, complaint and reporting mechanisms are not addressed, suggesting gaps in response systems.
Privacy and data protection
Privacy & Data Protection receives moderate attention (7), with emphasis on data protection, surveillance and profiling, alongside artificial intelligence (AI) and children’s digital privacy rights. This indicates increasing awareness of data governance and emerging technological risks. The distribution suggests that data handling and surveillance are key concerns.
Digital access and participation
Digital Access & Participation receives limited attention (3), with references to access for children with disabilities, the digital divide, and IT infrastructure. This suggests some recognition of access and inclusion challenges. However, the low scores indicate these issues are not strongly prioritised.
Concluding Observations CRC
“Concerned… Children being detained on charges under blasphemy laws, including for online blasphemy under cybercrime laws;”
“Develop regulations and safeguarding policies for the media and in the digital environment to protect the privacy of children as well as to prevent children’s exposure to harmful content, materials and online risks, and provide for mechanisms to prosecute violations;”
“Improve digital inclusion for children in disadvantaged situations, including by means of accessible and affordable online services and connectivity across the country”
“Prevent, detect and investigate all cases of online violence against children, including child online sexual abuse and exploitation cases and strengthen the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency through ensuring sufficient human, material and financial resources for their effective functioning;”
“Enhance awareness of child sexual abuse and exploitation among the members of the public and professionals working with and for children and respond to all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse, including by strengthening the professional capacity and software tools to detect and investigate such abuse and raising awareness of parents and teachers about online and offline risks;”
“Develop regulations and safeguarding policies for the media and in the digital environment to protect the privacy of children as well as to prevent children’s exposure to harmful content, materials and online risks, and provide for mechanisms to prosecute violations;”
“Concerned… Large numbers of children, including boys, continue to be victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, including in the digital environment, while the perpetrators enjoy impunity”
“Develop regulations with respect to artificial intelligence to increase opportunities for children and protect them from the harm imposed on them by artificial intelligence;”
“Further improve its data collection system and ensure that data collected on children’s rights covers all areas of the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, with data disaggregated by age, sex, disability, geographical location, ethnic, religious and national origin and affiliation and socioeconomic background in order to facilitate analysis of the situation of children, particularly those in situations of vulnerability;”
“Enforce legislation criminalizing all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, marital rape, and crimes committed in the name of so called “honour”, establish a national database on CRC/C/PAK/CO/6-7 9 all cases of domestic violence against children, and undertake a comprehensive assessment of the extent, causes and nature of such violence”
Pakistan 2026
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