01 March,2026 07:27 AM IST | Mumbai | Arpika Bhosale
15-year-old Ahana Arunkumar and her mother Rajni watched the Epstein documentary together, spurring Aahana to read the files. Pic/Nimesh Dave
The defining trait of Gen Alpha is that they are digital natives. This is, after all, the first generation that has never known a time before smart phones. It can't come as a total shock then, that the Epstein files have reached them, no matter what filters we've set on their devices.
"My seven-year-old pointed to Epstein coverage on the front page of a newspaper and asked me, âWhat is child trafficking?'," a friend tells us. "She had seen the words in a headline and since she's a child, the words stuck out for her," adds our millennial mother, "I didn't get too graphic but I told her that children had been kidnapped and hurt. To be honest, I was too stunned to say any more. I just tried to address it without scaring her."
Other parents and educators, too, confirm that teenagers have been asking questions or, in some cases, have had full-blown discussions on the global paedophile cabal with their parents.
Some adults, though, dismiss the concern, stating, "This is nowhere on their radar", or "I don't think they feel this is important for them to know".
But a quick Reddit search shows that even when parents and teachers are unwilling to entertain Gen Alpha's curiosity, it won't stop children from talking about it - or processing it in their signature method: memes. One subreddit for Indian teenagers has a screenshot of a Google search, where the user has typed only eps⦠and the auto-fill feature suggests âEpstein island tour vlog'. A teenager comments below the meme: "Typing Epstein files and ts [this] shi [shi'] got me". A city school counsellor tells us, "Co-incidentally, just today a child submitted his worksheet on which he'd signed off with âJeffery Epstein' instead of his own name. When I asked him about it, he said he knows bout the files and Epstein's suicide. A 13-year-old girl once asked if we would discuss Epstein in the next group counselling session. Another 12-year-old, during a one-on-one session, wondered what [physicist] Stephen Hawking was doing in the files," they add.
Make no mistake, the kids know what's happening. The island is closer than we think.
When Netflix released the docuseries, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich in 2025, mother-daughter duo Rajni and Ahana Arunkumar decided to watch it together.
"We decoded it together. My husband joined in as well, and the discussion got heated but all of it was healthy," she says.
Ahana is a fiery 15-year-old, the kind of teenager who will eventually run the world. When the files were released in January, she read through the tranches of emails even as she prepared for her board exams. "We wanted to know what is going on in the world," she says. "What really disgusted me was the cream cheese reference [alleged reference to cannibalism]. I couldn't believe it. I remember calling my friend; we were both so stunned that we didn't speak for the longest time," she adds.
Are the Epstein memes just a way for her peers to process what even adults have had trouble digesting, or is it a sign that Gen Alpha really doesn't give a damn? We point out an example: a viral meme shows a man running a Ctrl+F search for his own name in the Epstein files.
"It's not really reducing what happened to a joke," defends Ahana, "It's a sign that no one in my generation is surprised [that children are exploited]... the files confirm what we've known all along."
Her matter-of-fact statement is a sobering read of the cynicism building among children towards social justice systems. Rather than expecting Gen Alpha to turn a blind eye just because this is happening on foreign shores, adults can help them by engaging in honest conversations about it.
"I study in an international school. We talk about American and European politics more than Indian elections. If anything, foreign headlines draw more of our attention because we consume content online," she says.
"When people don't take big things like this seriously, we feel even more unsafe," she adds, "because then we realise that if something similar were to happen here, we wouldn't have support either. We can't help but think that the very people who are supposed to protect and empower citizens in the world's most powerful country are themselves in the Epstein files. If this happened here, would there be any repercussions for our leaders?"
In a few years, Ahana and her peers will be eligible to vote. We ask whether a politician's track record in dealing with crimes against women and children is a factor for her. "Yes!" she dives in, "half the population is female, you have to make sure that policymakers have the best interests of women and children at heart."
"Not enough people are talking about this, we need to have conversations about this in India."
Ruchita Dar's son turns 17 in a month. He too started to watch the Epstein docuseries on Netflix, but halted midway because the crimes were too disturbing. "The sexual harassment and other details that have emerged from the files is very alarming," he says, "It's disappointing that something like this is happening in the 21st century. But for me, the biggest learning is that we must always question power." Talking about the news coverage, he says, "They [news outlets] are focusing more on the names revealed than the acts themselves. It's âOh, Bill Gates was mentioned', or âMusk was mentioned so many times'. The coverage is just about shock value at this point."
His mother Dar says, "Children are watching all this with or without us. I think we must address this elephant in the room."
Paedophilia and grooming are subjects journalist-author Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava had covered in her 2020 book, Stoned, Shamed, Depressed: An Explosive Account of the Secret Lives of India's Teens.
Parents continue to take these issues lightly, she recalls how during a talk about the book, "a parent approached me and quipped, âDoes grooming mean dressing up well?' I shut them down immediately and told them not to make light of the topic."
"My 13-year-old daughter is not on social media, but she knows what is going on because everyone around her is talking about it," says Mohan. "Many kids have a Finsta [fake Insta account] from the age of nine, so let us understand that children are being exposed to content like never before. They're not just ChatGPT about their math homework; they're also asking âWhat is there in the Epstein files?'"
Shweta Sankhla, who lives in Navi Mumbai, has two sons, a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old. While the younger son doesn't have a phone, he can access YouTube on the family TV and on her phone as well. "The other day my elder son came and told me that his brother was watching Dhruv Rathee's episode on the files. I told him to stop watching it and initiated a conversation instead," she says.
"He said, âMumma, I know there is an island, there are children who are being trafficked there'. I hadn't realised that he already knew so much. My elder son then told me that he knows about the claims of cannibalism of children as well. But they were quite awkward talking about it," she adds.
Dinky Tejwani, counselling psychologist
"Kids above the age of 13, if they have access to a phone, have very likely heard about Epstein. It is mainly through the meme culture or viral content that they first find out about it. These memes travel in friend groups like a social contagion. Instagram, Threads, Reddit, X, Discord and the game Roblox have become big hubs for this information. I feel, children in tier-2 or 3 cities are less aware of Epstein. Children talk about it in hallways, or joke about it in class. Recently a girl jokes: âDon't roam around so late at night or you might find yourself on the [Epstein] island'."
August 2025: 14-year-old raped by 200 men in three months from child trafficking ring in Palghar
February 23, 2026: Two minors rescued from child prostitution racket in Navi Mumbai
11 to 17
Age of victims trafficked to Epstein Island
3.5 million
Epstein files released until now
16
Age of oldest Gen Alphas, who're born from 2010 onwards
