Authored by Md. Hasibul Hossain
Introduction
Bangladesh is passing through an age of digital transformation in a multi-faceted way. Our criminal legal system is significantly experiencing juvenile delinquents who often get involved in cyber-related offences, from hacking and impersonation to cyberbullying and sextortion. These occurrences do not reflect the malevolent intent but contain a lack of awareness, digital maturity, and ethics. In response, the criminal legal system has struggled to balance its rehabilitative objectives for minors with the harsh and outdated legal tools available to deal with digital crime. This emerging tension implies that Bangladesh needs a contemporary approach. Digital literacy, broadly defined as the ability to safely, ethically, and effectively use digital technologies, appears as a critical yet overlooked crime prevention strategy, particularly within the juvenile justice system. (Kaur & Arora, 2021)
The juvenile justice system in Bangladesh is regulated by the Shisu Ain 2013 (Children Act, 2013) ,a progressive piece of legislation that emphasizes the protection, development, and rehabilitation of children in conflict with the law. This act approves the establishment of Child Development Centers (CDCs) with the inclusion of diverse programs, child-friendly courts, and protective custody mechanisms. It is aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), recognizing that children’s behavior must be understood within their subjective context of socialization, maturity, and environment.
However, this rehabilitation-oriented legal framework is being tested by a new and rapidly evolving form of youth deviance: cybercrime. Juveniles today are becoming involved in activities like phishing, identity theft, digital extortion, hacking school systems, and sharing explicit content, often illegally and unethically. While the Children Act emphasizes rehabilitation, cybercrime laws prioritize i) prosecution, ii) surveillance, and iii) deterrence. This contradiction weakens the integrity of juvenile justice and increases the risk of violation of rights. (BTRC, 2024)
What is Digital Literacy?
Digital literacy goes far beyond simply knowing how to operate a smartphone or browse the internet; it includes a broad set of skills that are essential for navigating the digital world (UNESCO, 2021). This includes understanding online privacy, consent, and the lasting impact of digital footprints, as well as the ability to recognize misinformation, cyber threats, and predatory behaviors like grooming. Also, critical thinking skills are important for evaluating online contents and interactions, along with knowledge of relevant digital laws and ethical standards. Digital literacy also involves an awareness of how certain actions in cyberspaces can have real-life consequences (UNICEF, 2022). This intersects with qualities like emotional intelligence and empathy, which are necessary for identifying and preventing harm in cases of cyberbullying or online harassment. In the context of juvenile justice, digital literacy must be recognized as a crucial need in an individual’s life course. Young people must be guided to behave ethically and safely in digital spaces, mirroring how they are taught social norms for physical spaces.
Digital literacy plays a critical role in preventing juvenile cybercrime by addressing its root causes, which are often social and behavioral rather than merely legal (UNODC, 2019). Discarding the punishment theory, digital education empowers young people with the knowledge and critical thinking skills necessary to navigate the online world responsibly. It helps them to understand the implications of their digital actions, resist peer pressure, and recognize harmful behaviors before escalating into criminal offences. Digital literacy creates a proactive culture of online responsibility by not only teaching children to protect themselves but also to behave ethically, report suspicious activities, and support safer online communities for their welfare.
Situational Factors and Their Role
A complicated interaction between both social and structural factors initiates juvenile cybercrime in Bangladesh. According to Islam & Nasrin (2020), one of the major factors is lack of digital awareness, as many juveniles remain unaware of cyber laws, the permanence of digital footprints, and the consequences of their online actions. This ignorance is often augmented by social influences such as peer pressure, viral online trends like TikTok challenges, and manipulation by adult offenders who glorify illegal digital behavior. These risks are further exacerbated by inadequate parental supervision and limited engagement from schools, which drives children to navigate the digital world without proper guidance. Additionally, structural inequalities in access to digital space do not necessarily mitigate risky behaviors. Both affluent urban students and underprivileged rural youth are vulnerable to becoming engaged in cybercrime. Together, these factors create an environment where juvenile involvement in cybercrime can flourish.
Rahman (2022) has added that these situations force us to reach an obscure position between delinquency and vulnerability. In many cases, juveniles play the roles of both offenders and victims in many instances especially in cases that involve sextortion or online grooming. Our persisting criminal legal system responds in a way that leads to responses like over-criminalization or labeling of juvenile behaviors as organized cybercrime rather than misguided experimentation or unintentional harm. We will have to remember one thing precisely: how digital literacy can function as a transformative, preventive, and rehabilitative tool in addressing cybercrime among juveniles in Bangladesh. Additionally, the systemic limitations of the current legal framework should offer adequate policy directions to integrate digital literacy into both formal education and juvenile justice institutions.
Furthermore, integrating digital literacy into rehabilitation efforts is important for juveniles because it can significantly reduce juvenile recidivism. Unlike incarceration, digital education directly addresses the behavioral and knowledge gaps that often lead to cyber-related offences. If this form of education is integrated within the legal system, it will strengthen child-centric measures by aligning with global standards under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It offers a more development-oriented and rights-based approach to juvenile cyber offences, recognizing that adolescents must be taught digital norms just as they are taught social norms in a physical setting.
Cruciality of Implicating Digital Literacy
Despite its intrinsic value, digital literacy remains largely absent from Bangladesh’s juvenile legal framework. Institutional integration and coordination are weak here. Child Development Centers (CDCs), juvenile courts, and police units dealing with juveniles rarely offer structured digital education or cyber-awareness initiatives. Instead, law enforcement agencies often rely on punitive laws without exploring rehabilitative or educational alternatives. Coordination among key stakeholders such as schools, police, social workers, and NGOs is minimal. It limits the potential for a unified response to digital risks. Additionally, justice actors themselves, including magistrates, probation officers, and police, often lack the training to assess the intention behind juvenile cyber offences. Existing awareness programs also suffer from an urban bias that leaves rural and disadvantaged youth without access to digital literacy resources. Addressing these systemic gaps is essential for building a more effective, equitable, and child-friendly approach to cybercrime prevention in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s juvenile justice system needs extensive improvements focused on digital literacy for a preventive, education-based strategy. Firstly, we should create a nationwide, age-appropriate digital literacy curriculum under the direction of the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Department of ICT and civil society organizations. Adolescents should be taught crucial subjects, including online ethics, consent, digital hygiene, cyberbullying, and legal obligations, in a rights-based curriculum. Moreover, all juvenile establishments and Child Development Centers (CDCs) should include digital education in their ongoing rehabilitation plans. These programs ought to be engaged and led by peer mentors or professional facilitators who know how to effectively involve young people.
Courts should have the authority to divert first-time or low-risk juvenile delinquents into required digital literacy and counselling programs as a rehabilitative option. Such authority should further integrate education into the legal system. For this approach to be successful, stakeholders in the legal sectors, such as police officers, magistrates, and social workers, need to be trained in adolescent psychology and digital behavior to accurately evaluate intent and rehabilitation potential. Community-based prevention is crucial outside of institutional settings. Since parents and teachers are frequently unaware of the dangers that children face online, they should actively participate in digital literacy programs that are held in schools, colleges, and madrasas. Finally, public-private partnerships can play a transformative role; tech companies and telecom providers should support awareness campaigns and training programs through their initiatives. It will help to build a nationwide culture of safe and responsible digital engagement.
Discussion on Some Efforts
Bangladesh has not yet fully institutionalized digital literacy, but several encouraging efforts point to a solid basis for future growth. One notable example of a proactive approach is the Bangladesh Police’s Cyber Teens program (2023), which trains teens to act as cyber safety ambassadors in their schools and educate their peers about the dangers of the internet. Similar to this, BRAC’s Adolescent Clubs (2021) provide a useful community-based platform that might be extended to include digital literacy modules, especially to reach the underprivileged rural kids. Furthermore, UNICEF has developed digital skills initiatives to enhance children’s online safety, providing a model that might be expanded nationally. These diverse efforts illustrate the undeveloped potential for a unified digital literacy initiative that bridges both the education and justice sectors.
Nevertheless, putting all these efforts into a concert for preventing crime faces numerous challenges. The scarcity of existing resources is a critical one. A successful digital literacy program needs sustainable funding, modern infrastructure, and a board of experts, e.g., educators, professors, etc., which are still absent in our juvenile justice institutions (Daily Star, 2024). Additionally, there is a barrier in the law enforcement agencies as they are unwilling or less responsive to adapt to new changes, i.e. rehabilitation approach for juvenile cyber delinquents. This institutional resistance towards new initiatives is hampering the overall juvenile justice system. Moreover, cultural sensitivity in our part of the globe makes it difficult to engage communities in open discourses on topics like online consent, sexting, and cyberbullying. Finally, the utmost challenge is the lack of coordination among key stakeholders who are responsible for policymaking approaches, e.g., the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Social Welfare. This discord delays or makes the thing more complicated to work cohesively. All these obstacles should be addressed to create a robust and sustainable digital literacy framework, which may lead to drafting a suitable crime prevention tool for juveniles.
Conclusion
Bangladesh is becoming active day by day in the digital space. Hence, its criminal legal system must remain present digitally (Save the Children Bangladesh, 2021). For this concern, digital literacy is a crying need that should be readdressed in our legal system. The rise of juvenile cybercrime requires a preventive and rehabilitative approach focusing on education and empowerment. However, digital literacy offers a platform for digital empowerment to reimagine juvenile justice, not as a mere approach of punishment. If we can implement digital education into our juvenile justice system, we may protect our children from becoming perpetrators or victims. It will help to draft educational policies to widen our legal system and national security, to make a better, safer, and inclusive Bangladesh.
References
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