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KARACHI: Artificial intelligence is reshaping online abuse in Pakistan in ways that are outpacing existing safeguards, with children increasingly caught in the crosshairs, according to the Digital Rights Foundation’s (DRF) latest annual report on its helpline.
The report flags a troubling rise in cases involving minors, including children as young as six, alongside growing evidence that generative AI is accelerating the scale, speed and anonymity of digital harm.
“We are entering a phase where AI is scaling harm at speed”, said DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad, warning that the convergence of emerging technologies and weak protection systems risks normalising abuse that is “automated, amplified and harder to escape”.
While the numbers themselves are stark, the report suggests the deeper crisis lies in how ill-equipped existing systems are to respond.
Even as 79 per cent of cyber harassment cases are referred to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), access to justice remains uneven and, in many cases, out of reach. Survivors outside major urban centres often face long travel distances and procedural hurdles. Notably, 892 complaints were received from cities without NCCIA offices.
It is within this environment that the scale of complaints continues to grow. In 2025 alone, the DRF helpline recorded 3,012 new cases and 776 follow-ups, including 2,586 instances of cyber harassment. This brings the total number of cases handled since 2016 to 23,032.
The rise in cases involving minors is particularly disturbing. Following a sharp increase in the previous year, such cases climbed by a further 28 per cent in 2025, reaching 159 reported cases. Although younger children represent a small proportion of total complaints, the report notes that those aged six to nine face severe risks, including online grooming, sexual abuse and digital exploitation.
Women continued to bear the brunt of online abuse, reporting 1,709 cases compared to 1,279 reported by men, and were disproportionately affected by forms of tech-facilitated violence such as non-consensual intimate image sharing, blackmail and sextortion. The helpline also received complaints from other high-risk groups, including 94 journalists, 52 human rights defenders, 24 individuals from religious and ethnic minorities and 159 minors.
The architecture of online platforms also remains central to how abuse unfolds. Messaging and social media services -- particularly WhatsApp, which alone accounted for 34 per cent of cases -- together with Facebook and Instagram made up 53 per cent of complaints, down from 57.4 per cent the previous year. Features such as disappearing messages and ‘view once’ media continue to complicate efforts to document harm and pursue accountability.
Punjab accounted for nearly 70 per cent of reported cases, while significantly lower reporting from regions such as Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan points to persistent gaps in awareness, infrastructure and access.
The helpline also recorded a growing international dimension, receiving 75 complaints from 30 countries across six continents.
The report calls for urgent reforms, including strengthening law enforcement capacity, improving reporting systems for minors, integrating psychological support services, enhancing data protection laws and investing in digital literacy. It also urges social media platforms to prioritise trusted flaggers and improve AI moderation for local contexts.
