When Safety Can No Longer Be Assumed: Rethinking Child Safeguarding in Pakistan

Child safeguarding in Pakistan

A child does not become unsafe only when they leave home. Sometimes, danger can exist on the very route to school, in a neighbourhood, in a familiar house, or even among people the family knows and trusts.

Recent cases reported across Pakistan have once again brought this painful reality into focus. In June 2026, the alleged rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Sargodha shocked the country. In July, police investigated the alleged sexual assault and murder of a six-year-old boy in Karachi after he was abducted from outside his home. In August, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl in Karachi died after an alleged sexual assault, with a teenage relative arrested in connection with the case. More recently, the alleged rape and murder of five-year-old Ayat Noor in Haripur triggered public outrage and renewed calls for stronger child-protection measures.

These are not simply individual criminal cases. They force parents, schools, communities and institutions to ask a much bigger question:

Are we doing enough to make the environments in which children learn, play and grow genuinely safe?

The Numbers Behind the Concern

The scale of the problem is deeply disturbing.

According to data compiled by child-rights organisation Sahil, 1,914 cases of child abuse were reported in Pakistan during the first six months of 2026 alone. The cases recorded from January to June included:

• 1,015 cases of child sexual abuse
• 558 cases of abduction
• 101 cases of missing children
• 98 cases involving pornography linked to sexual abuse
• 49 infants reportedly found abandoned

Girls represented 58% of the reported victims, while boys accounted for 42%. Children aged 11–15 years represented the largest reported age group, with 598 cases.

These figures should concern every parent.

But there is another finding that is perhaps even more important for how we think about safeguarding.

The threat is not always a stranger.

Sahil’s first-half 2026 data, as reported by Dawn, indicates that 43% of alleged abusers were acquaintances of the child, while 45% of reported incidents occurred in the child’s own home.

This changes the safeguarding conversation.

If we teach children only:

“Don’t talk to strangers.”

we may be teaching them an incomplete safety lesson.

Children also need to understand:

“You can say NO to anyone.”
“You can tell a trusted adult if something feels wrong.”
“No one has the right to touch you in a way that makes you uncomfortable.”
“You will not be blamed for telling.”

The Real Safeguarding Question

For years, child safety has often been approached through warnings:

• Don’t go too far from home.
• Don’t talk to strangers.
• Don’t accept things from unknown people.
• Don’t go somewhere alone.
• Be careful on the way to school.

These precautions remain important.

But today’s reality requires a broader approach.

A child may encounter risk:

on the road → in a neighbourhood → at a playground → in a transport vehicle → at a tuition centre → in a familiar home → through a trusted person → or online.

Therefore, safeguarding cannot be reduced to one rule or one awareness session.

It has to become part of the design of a child’s daily life.

What Should Parents Be Thinking About?

Parents naturally want their children to attend school, meet friends, play outdoors and develop independence.

But independence should come with age-appropriate safety skills, not simply freedom.

Parents should know:

Who is around my child?

Know the adults and older children who regularly interact with your child.

Where does my child go?

Understand the child’s route to school, tuition, playground and other regular activities.

Does my child know how to seek help?

A child should be able to identify trusted adults and know what to do if they feel unsafe.

Can my child talk to me without fear?

This may be the most important question of all.

If a child believes they will be punished, blamed or disbelieved, they may remain silent.

A safe home is therefore not merely a home with locked doors.

A safe home is a home where a child can speak.

What Should Schools and Communities Do?

Schools cannot treat safeguarding as an additional activity conducted once a year.

It should be reflected in everyday practice.

Schools need:

• Safe recruitment and background-check procedures
• Clear staff codes of conduct
• Supervision of children during arrival, departure and breaks
• Safe transport arrangements
• Child-friendly reporting mechanisms
• Safeguarding focal persons
• Regular safeguarding awareness for children and staff
• Clear procedures for responding to allegations
• Confidential complaint and referral mechanisms
• Parent awareness and engagement

Communities also have a role.

When a child goes missing, shows sudden behavioural changes, becomes unusually withdrawn or expresses fear about a particular person or place, these should not automatically be dismissed as “just a child’s behaviour.”

Sometimes behaviour is communication.

We Also Need to Rethink the Meaning of “Safe Learning”

Education is essential for every child.

But education should not require children to be exposed unnecessarily to unsafe environments.

This does not mean keeping children permanently inside the home or preventing healthy social interaction.

It means giving families more than one safe pathway to learning.

This is where technology and online education can become part of the safeguarding conversation.

Can Online Learning Help Keep Children Safe?

Yes—but only when designed as a child-safe learning environment.

Online education is not a replacement for every form of schooling, social interaction or physical development.

But for certain learners, circumstances and learning needs, it can provide an important alternative:

Learning from a supervised environment.

A child can attend a structured online lesson from home while a parent or responsible adult remains nearby.

Instead of:

Home → road → transport → public space → school → return journey

some learning activities can take place through:

Home → supervised learning → teacher support → assessment → feedback.

This can reduce a child’s exposure to some external risks associated with travel, unsupervised movement and unfamiliar environments.

Online Learning as a Safeguarding Tool

A well-designed online learning platform can offer:

1. Learning Under Parental Supervision

Parents can know when the child is learning, what the child is learning and who is interacting with the child.

2. A Controlled Learning Environment

Lessons can be delivered within a structured platform rather than requiring children to navigate uncontrolled online spaces.

3. Reduced Unnecessary Travel

For children who face safety concerns during daily travel, online learning can reduce some exposure to roads, transport and unsupervised routes.

4. Structured Teacher Interaction

Live or recorded lessons can maintain teacher support without requiring every learning interaction to happen physically.

5. Self-Paced Learning

Children can learn through structured lessons, repeat difficult concepts and progress according to their learning needs.

6. Parent Visibility

Parents can remain involved through progress reports, assignments, assessments and learning records.

But Online Does Not Automatically Mean Safe

This distinction is extremely important.

Putting a child in front of a screen is not safeguarding.

An online learning platform must itself be designed around child protection.

It should consider:

• Safe login and access
• Age-appropriate content
• Teacher verification
• Controlled communication
• Privacy and data protection
• No unnecessary sharing of children’s personal information
• Safe video-conferencing practices
• Moderated interaction
• Reporting and complaint mechanisms
• Parental visibility
• Clear safeguarding protocols
• Protection from inappropriate external links and content

The solution is therefore not simply “move education online.”

The solution is:

Design learning online with safeguarding built into the system from the beginning.

A New Safeguarding Model: Protect, Teach and Empower

Pakistan needs a safeguarding approach that works at three levels.

1. Protect

Create safer homes, schools, transport systems, neighbourhoods and digital environments.

2. Teach

Teach children age-appropriate concepts of:

body safety • boundaries • consent • safe/unsafe situations • trusted adults • seeking help • online safety

3. Empower

Give children the confidence to say:

“No.”
“I don’t feel safe.”
“I need help.”
“I want to tell someone.”

A child who knows how to recognise danger and seek help is better equipped than a child who has simply been told to “be careful.”

The Bigger Responsibility

Parents cannot do this alone.

Schools cannot do this alone.

Police cannot do this alone.

Governments cannot do this alone.

And technology cannot do this alone.

Safeguarding is a shared social responsibility.

Parents must create open communication.

Schools must create protective systems.

Communities must remain vigilant.

Institutions must respond quickly and responsibly.

Governments must strengthen implementation, investigation and accountability.

Technology providers must build child safety into their platforms.

And society must stop treating child abuse as something that happens only to “someone else’s child.”

Every Child Deserves a Safe Route to Learning

The recent cases reported from Karachi, Sargodha and Haripur are heartbreaking reminders that vulnerability does not always announce itself.

A child can disappear from outside the home.

A child can be harmed by someone familiar.

A child can remain silent because they are afraid of what will happen if they speak.

And sometimes the greatest failure is not that we did not know the child was at risk—it is that we never created a system capable of recognising the risk early enough.

This is why safeguarding must move from reaction to prevention.

From:

“What will we do after something happens?”

to:

“What can we change today to reduce the opportunity for harm?”

Online learning can be one part of that answer—not as a replacement for safe schools and healthy childhood experiences, but as an additional supervised, structured and secure pathway to education.

When thoughtfully designed, it allows a child to continue learning from a familiar environment while parents remain closer to the learning journey.

Because education should open doors for children.

It should never put their safety behind those doors.

A Final Message for Every Parent

Don’t only ask:

“Is my child learning?”

Also ask:

“Is my child safe while learning?”

And perhaps most importantly:

“Does my child know that they can always come to me?”

That conversation may be one of the most powerful safeguarding tools a parent can give a child.

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