IN the shadows of Pakistan’s burgeoning digital revolution lies a grotesque underbelly few dare to acknowledge: a sprawling, unregulated network of online exploitation. Live-chat apps and lesser-known platforms have become virtual ‘places of pleasure’, where minors, housewives and young women from impoverished families are forced into digital indecency.

Many of these women lack even basic literacy, and are coerced into this business while families and authorities remain oblivious. Recruitment is cloaked in respectability. Groups and advertisements promise remote jobs for women, luring them with claims of easy money through simple online tasks.

Uneducated girls from rural areas and desperate housewives in urban slums, unaware of the trap, willingly share personal details. Once enrolled, they are directed to download the relevant apps. The so-called agencies operating these rings, often run by offshore middlemen, take a hefty cut of their earnings, leaving the victims with mere pennies.

This is not a fringe issue. While precise data remains scarce due to underreporting, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reported an alarming surge in cyber- crime complaints related to blackmail and exploitation between 2021 and 2023.

Investigations have revealed that some of the well-known digital apps happen to be the primary hubs for these activities, with thousands of users exchanging illicit content daily. Yet, law enforcement remains paralysed. Cybercrime laws focus on financial fraud and blasphemy, not exploitation. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) lacks explicit provisions to prosecute online indecency, or to protect minors. Section 21, which criminalises unauthorised disclosure of private information, is often misused to silence victims rather than punish the culprits.

The economic desperation driving this trade cannot be overstated. In a country where 40 per cent of women lack formal employment, a $5 call represents a day’s wage for a rural family. For many, it is a hard choice between social dignity and starvation.

To dismantle this predatory ecosystem, Pakistan must overhaul its legal and technological frameworks. First, cyber laws require urgent amendments. Peca must expand its scope to define and penalise online exploitation, including grooming, coercion and trafficking via digital platforms.

Specific clauses should criminalise the operation of online agencies profiting from illegal activities, with stringent penalties for offshore recruiters. Additi-onally, the law must mandate cooperation between Pakistani authorities and international platforms that currently ignore takedown requests from local law-enforcement due to jurisdictional ambiguities.

Second, blocking access to predatory apps is critical. While Pakistan has previously banned some platforms over immoral content, such measures are sporadic and politically motivated. A systematic approach is needed. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) must collaborate with cybersecurity experts to identify and permanently block apps repeatedly flagged for hosting exploitative content.

There are certain platforms that have faced bans in Indonesia and India for enabling unacceptable content involving minors, but their operations have conti-nued in Pakistan. Similarly, encrypted platforms that allow anonymous channels to operate must be compelled to register their local offices and comply with content moderation laws.

Public awareness campaigns, too, are essential. Simple measures, like verifying employers through government portals or reporting suspicious ads to helplines, could prevent countless cases. Schools in low-income areas must integrate digital literacy programmes to teach minors how to recognise grooming behaviour or inappropriate requests.

The alternative is unthinkable. Every day of inaction only ends up normalising the illegality. Every unblocked app, every unamended law, and every silenced victim deepens Pakistan’s moral crisis.

Usman Ahmad
Vienna, Austria

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2025