Author(s): Deepshikha Bhide,Vikrant Sopan Yadav
In India, digital communication is an important tool for public legal education and child protection awareness. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) puts it in the public domain, and governmental and civil-society actors are increasingly using social media, video, influencers, hashtags, school programs, and other communication mechanisms to discuss child-safety rights and reporting channels. The employment of marketing approaches in communicating for child protection, however, poses a special moral dilemma: the consumption is a behaviour change, but the population communicated with is a legally protected and extremely vulnerable group. This paper stretches a Responsible Communication Framework (RCF) for POCSO awareness, drawn from social marketing theory and fear appeal research, and incorporates elements of child rights and Indian media restrictions, advertising self-regulation, and data protection regulations. The study will use a qualitative multiple case study approach of a doctrinal nature. The key legal sources are the POCSO Act; the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) advertising standards and the Consumer Protection Act framework; the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Rules, 2020; and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and rules, 2025. Three communication models are discussed: ProtectedByPOCSO campaign, a comparative Indian social-marketing model (Bell Bajao), and communication campaigns in schools and institutions for POCSO sensitization. They list six interrelated needs: legality, dignity and non-identifiability; efficacy-balanced persuasion; data minimization and child-safe targeting; audience co-design and pre-testing; and multi-stakeholder accountability. Earlier versions of the manuscript have a significant legal qualification: the rules contained in the DPDP Act itself were introduced in 2023, the final rules were notified in November 2025, and the substantive rules on children's data will start only from 13 May 2027. Therefore, the paper makes a distinction between current obligations and prospectus compliance obligations. The RCF will not replace existing statutory responsibilities; it is suggested as a working bridge between marketing effectiveness and child-protection law.