Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has stressed the need to safeguard children in the virtual world without depriving them of access to modern digital tools and technology.

Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad today, she called for sustained joint efforts among tech platforms, policymakers, civil society, parents and the government to protect young minds.

Rejecting calls for complete bans on social media, Shaza Fatima Khawaja warned that outright restrictions force children onto unregulated platforms through unsafe tools such as VPNs.

She emphasized the need for collaboration with global tech companies to establish foolproof age-assurance mechanisms and to ensure that built-in platform safety features for teenagers are effectively enforced.

The minister stressed that tech firms must integrate safety as a core foundation of digital platforms rather than an afterthought.

She called for expanding public awareness campaigns on digital harms beyond major urban centres to reach millions of users in rural areas across the country.