Let’s suppose a 13-year-old boy in Lahore joins a gaming chat group after school. Within days, someone in the group begins messaging him privately, offering virtual coins in exchange for “fun” pictures. At first, it feels like a game. Then come the threats that the photos will be shared unless he sends more. It sounds extreme, but incidents like this are happening daily, often silently, across Pakistan’s fast-expanding digital landscape.
Pakistan now ranks 8th among countries with the largest internet user base, with 82.9 million internet users and 71.7m active social media accounts as of 2022. Internet penetration stands at 36.5 per cent of the total population, and it grew by 22m new users in a single year. The country also has 186.9m mobile connections, a number that shows how deeply technology has penetrated every layer of society.
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