Start from the fact that your child has done nothing wrong, whatever was said or sent, and say that to them before you do anything else. Then treat the messages as evidence. What the law calls this depends on what was threatened, and the police response, the platform's duties and the urgency all follow from that one fact.
Is this a POCSO matter?
A sexual threat may disclose a POCSO offence. The conduct and the required sexual intent must be assessed under the relevant provision. Section 11 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 says a person commits sexual harassment of a child when, with sexual intent, he "repeatedly or constantly follows or watches or contacts a child either directly or through electronic, digital or any other means", or "threatens to use, in any form of media, a real or fabricated depiction through electronic, film or digital or any other mode, of any part of the body of the child or the involvement of the child in a sexual act", or shows the child any object in any media for pornographic purposes, or entices the child for such purposes. Section 12 punishes it with up to three years and fine. Where the child was made to send images, Sections 13 and 14 on using a child for pornographic purposes provide for imprisonment of not less than five years and a fine on a first conviction, and not less than seven years and a fine on a subsequent conviction, and Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 separately punishes anyone who entices a child into an online relationship for a sexually explicit act or facilitates abusing a child online, with up to five years and a fine up to Rs 10 lakh. A child means anyone under eighteen.
What was threatened?
- Anything sexual, including "send a photo or else": POCSO Sections 11 and 12, Section 67B IT Act. Report to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police under Section 19 POCSO, which obliges the police to record it and to report to the Child Welfare Committee and the Special Court within twenty-four hours.
- Threats of violence to the child or the family: Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, criminal intimidation, two years, rising to seven under Section 351(3) where the threat is of death or grievous hurt, and two more under Section 351(4) because the sender hid behind a gamer tag.
- A demand for money, gift cards or in-game items under threat: Section 308 BNS, extortion, up to seven years, and Section 66D IT Act if the sender pretended to be someone else.
- Persistent unwanted contact with a girl despite refusal: Section 78 BNS, stalking, which covers a man who repeatedly contacts a woman or monitors her use of the internet, and Section 2(35) BNS defines a woman as a female of any age.
Where do I report, and can it be anonymous?
Three routes, and you can use all of them. The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in has an anonymous route for specified rape/gang-rape and child sexual abuse material. Other child-threat complaints should use the appropriate reporting route, and a tracked complaint provides an acknowledgement number. For a money demand, 1930 is the financial fraud helpline. The child helpline 1098 continues under the Mission Vatsalya scheme, integrated with the 112 emergency system, and connects to the district child protection machinery. For a written complaint, Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 lets you file at any police station and by electronic communication signed within three days, and Section 78 of the IT Act requires an Inspector to investigate. A POCSO report must be recorded, read over to you and entered in the register under Section 19(2), and Section 21 makes failure to record or report it an offence, which is a sentence worth quoting if a station tries to send you away. If it still refuses, the answer on police refusing an FIR has the ladder.
What must the gaming platform do?
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 apply to gaming platforms as intermediaries, and Rule 4 adds duties for online gaming intermediaries that offer real-money games. Rule 3(1)(b)(iii) requires every intermediary to make reasonable efforts to keep users from hosting information that is "harmful to child", and Rule 3(1)(b)(ii) covers content that is paedophilic or harassing on the basis of gender. Rule 3(2)(a) requires a published Grievance Officer who acknowledges within twenty-four hours, resolves within seven days and resolves qualifying removal complaints specified in Rule 3(2)(a) within thirty-six hours. Rule 3(2)(b) requires reasonable and practicable removal measures within two hours after a qualifying complaint about specified intimate content or electronic impersonation of an individual, including morphed images. Rule 3(1)(g) requires removed content and its records to be preserved for one hundred and eighty days, and Rule 3(1)(j) requires the platform to give the police the account holder's data within seventy-two hours of a lawful order. Use the in-game report and block, then send the written complaint to the Grievance Officer the same day, because that is what starts the clocks and preserves the account behind the gamer tag.
| Actor | Duty | Source | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local police or Special Juvenile Police Unit | Record the report, arrange care if needed, inform CWC and Special Court | Section 19 POCSO Act | Twenty-four hours |
| Platform Grievance Officer | Acknowledge, then remove sexual or impersonating content | Rule 3(2)(a) and (b), IT Rules 2021 | Twenty-four hours |
| Platform | Preserve removed content and hand account data to police on order | Rule 3(1)(g) and (j) | One hundred and eighty days, seventy-two hours |
| Investigating officer | Inspector rank, trace the account, seize the device if needed | Section 78 IT Act | From registration |
| You | Portal report through the appropriate category, then written police complaint | cybercrime.gov.in, Section 173(1) BNSS | Today |
What evidence do I preserve, and how do I handle my child?
- Screenshots of every message with the sender's username, user ID, the game or server, and the date and time visible, and a screen recording where the chat scrolls
- The platform's own report ticket number and the reply
- Any images, links or files sent, saved as received and not forwarded to anyone except the police
- Do not delete the account or the messages, do not reply, and do not let anyone confront the person from the child's account
- Keep the device the child used, unwiped, since Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 requires a certificate for electronic records and the source device makes that simple
- Write down what your child tells you, in their words, on the day, with the time
On the conversation with your child: no lecture about screen time, no confiscated phone as a punishment, because both teach the child that reporting costs them something, and the next threat will go unreported. Say that the person on the other end committed a crime, that adults will handle it, and that nothing they sent makes them responsible. Section 21(3) of the POCSO Act itself says that the duty to report does not apply to a child, and the Act is written to protect the child, not to judge them.
What I tell parents about the "send one more or I will share" pattern
Do not pay and do not send. The threat to share an image is itself the offence under Section 11(v) of the POCSO Act, the person almost never has what they claim, and paying produces a second demand within the hour. Report the same evening, and if an image has already gone out, the answer on intimate images posted online has the two-hour qualifying-content removal route. Our answer on online harassment covers the adult version of the same offences, and our post on POCSO, consent and bail explains why the law gives a minor's consent no value at all.