The explosive growth of the Internet and social media in Sri Lanka is currently redefining day-to-day communication in the country. Yet, the increased reliance on virtual interaction creates serious concerns about social interactions, especially for the youth. More and more Sri Lankan teenagers report experiencing online abuse, ranging from sharing of private images without consent to doxxing, targeting and cyberstalking. As online violence is both pervasive and instantaneous, Sri Lankan adolescents’ psychological well-being and schooling increasingly depend on their ability to mitigate digital risks. Thus, it is essential to ensure that Sri Lankan legislation offers adequate protection for the country’s young population.
Various Sri Lankan laws provide the basis for prosecuting online offenders, from defamation and criminal intimidation as per Penal Code Ordinance No. 2 of 1883 to the recently enacted Online Safety Act No. 9 of 2024. At the same time, existing legislation does not respond adequately to the needs of child victims of internet-enabled crimes. The country’s Cyber Crime laws, Computer Crimes Act No. 24 of 2007, are largely focused on regulating server intrusions and unauthorized access to data, with limited explicit references to bullying as a crime. The Online Safety Act No. 9 of 2024 contains several articles detailing the offenses related to illegal dissemination of personal data with intent to harass, annoy, or humiliate. Nonetheless, the latest legislation focuses predominantly on controlling disinformation and digital defamation, with limited attention to the needs of child victims of online violence. Consequently, Sri Lanka’s laws have various gaps and shortcomings in explicitly protecting its young population from online harassment.
In many ways, this challenge is associated with the fact that Sri Lanka’s legislation does not offer sufficient protection for children and adolescents. Current laws mandate reporting online crimes to the police, where the child victims often undergo complex and humiliating investigative procedures. Additionally, specialized police units, such as the Cyber Crime Division, are understaffed and ill-equipped to handle high volumes of harassment reports, particularly in real time. As a result, online violence often goes unanswered until it has already severely affected the victim. Moreover, there is a limited responsibility on social media companies to review and remove violent content in Sri Lanka and most such platforms only have limited moderation capabilities for Sinhalese and Tamil languages. Therefore, online harassment campaigns using local languages often go unnoticed by automatic content detection systems.
Overall, Sri Lanka’s laws offer limited and insufficient protection for its young population. In this country, children and teenagers are dependent on state regulations, with few private and institutional resources to take legal action against perpetrators of online violence. To minimize the impact of cyberbullying, policymakers must ensure that such offenses are explicitly defined and penalized. Moreover, legislators should provide online victims with faster and more effective redress, such as court-approved content removal. Lastly, it is essential to hold social media companies accountable for moderating unlawful content, particularly in local languages. Without legislative changes and greater focus on the needs of child victims, Sri Lanka will be unable to offer its young population an adequate response to online violence.
Written By: –
Rtr. Sadipa Piyathissa
(Prospect Member 2026-27)
Design By: –
Rtr. Pesandi Senawatta
(Senior Blog Team Member 2026-27)
