Too Young To Scroll? Debate On Social Media Ban For Children In India

India is witnessing a growing debate on whether children should have unrestricted access to social media. Concerns relating to mental health, cyberbullying, addictive online behaviour and harmful content have prompted discussions on introducing age-based restrictions for minors.

Why Social Media Use by Children Requires Regulation?

Growing concerns in relation to the alarming impact of the use of social media on children have made Indian law makers consider an age-based restriction on the access of social media platforms. Mental health professionals have observed over the past decade that children and adolescents have become increasingly less comfortable with boredom. The constant stimulation and immediate dopamine rewards provided by social media reduce the need to wait patiently or put in efforts resulting in reduced tolerance and increased stress levels. Being gullible and susceptible to misleading, manipulative, or inappropriate online content, unrestricted access to social media also poses a risk of minors being exposed to explicit content, causing long-term adversarial consequences. Constant comparison on appearance, achievements or social life leads to lower self-confidence and increase in stress and anxiety among young minds. Reduction in sleep, physical activity and face-to-face interaction with family and friends are other negative side effects. In many cases, children are overly dependent on checking likes or messages on their posts or scrolling through videos, causing diminishing concentration on studies and other important activities. Over time, this can affect their emotional well-being, behaviour and overall development.

Existing Legal Framework in India 

India has no single statute directly regulating a minor’s access to social media, but the child online safety is regulated or addressed through various regulations, guidelines and institutional framework including:

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 read with Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 regulate the social media platforms by providing punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act and authorises the Central Government to issue directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource in public interest.
• The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) defines ‘child’ as under 18 (eighteen) years of age and requires a data fiduciary to adopt appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure verifiable parental consent before processing any personal data of a child. Provisions related to processing of personal data of children (which will come into force in May 2027) also prohibits tracking or behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising directed at children.
• The Ministry of Education’s ‘PRAGYATA Guidelines’ issued in the year 2020 promotes the use of social media for education related activities but recommends age-appropriate screen-time limits, parental supervision, balanced online-offline activities, and safe digital behaviour for students.
• The Central Board of Secondary Education has operationalised these objectives through its ‘Cyber Safety Handbook’, cyber-wellness teacher training programmes, ‘Cyber Jagrookta Diwas’ initiatives, ‘Cyber Clubs’ aimed at promoting responsible and safe use of internet by school children.
• Similarly, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has issued ‘Being Safe Online’ awareness guidelines, incorporated a ‘Cyber Safety’ chapter in its School Safety Manual and released the 2024 ‘Guidelines for Prevention of Bullying and Cyberbullying in Schools’.
• National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has also issued ‘Safe Online Learning’ handbook which provides guidance on safe digital learning practices.

These initiatives indicate that India’s present approach is focused on digital literacy, cyber safety, parental involvement and responsible technology use, rather than on imposing a statutory ban on social media access for minors. Presently, there is no minimum age requirement for operating and using a social media account by children and no mechanism to control the usage at the device level other than the parental consent required under DPDP Act.

The aforementioned legislative gaps were highlighted by the Madras High Court in the case of S. Vijayakumar v. Union of India & Ors¹., where a petition was filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to direct the Internet Service Provider (ISP) companies to provide “Parental Window” service to prevent easy accessibility of online pornographic content to young children, and the Court observed that India should adopt a legislation like Australia to ban the access of social media to children and in the meantime, to control the user end through a parent control measures in the app available in the device and create awareness among users regarding such measures.

Recent Government Proposals to Ban Social Media Access for Young Children

During state budget presentation for the financial year 2026-27, the Karnataka Government announced a proposal to ban social media for children under the age of 16 with the objective of preventing adverse effects of increasing mobile usage on children. Subsequently, in March 2026, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu announced the State’s intent to propose a new regulatory framework which would ban children under the age of 13 years from social media platforms and regulate access to social media for children under the age of 16 years. Similarly, other states like Maharashtra, Goa and Kerela are in the process of evaluating the impact of social media on minors. In furtherance of the above, on January 31, 2026, Mr. L.S.K. Devarayalu, a member of Parliament proposed the Social Media (Age Restrictions and Online Safety) Bill, 2026 to introduce an age-based restriction for children using social media platforms. Further, the Safeguarding Healthy Internet Environments for Little Digital-Natives (SHIELD) Bill, 2025 has recently been proposed by a member of Parliament, which has been listed for introduction in the Indian Parliament as a private member's bill.

However, the above announcements and developments are still far from being enacted into legislations banning social media for children under the age of 16.

Trade off: Why an Outright Ban Is Not Straightforward?

For a growing number of children and teenagers, social media has evolved beyond entertainment and serves as a platform to display talent, develop professional connections, and access opportunities that may otherwise be difficult to obtain. Through digital content creation, many young individuals have been able to overcome geographical limitations and access professional networks, accelerating their creative, educational, or entrepreneurial pursuits. Social media has also contributed to greater economic participation across different socio-economic backgrounds. In some cases, income generated through online content creation supplements household earnings and provides financial support to families.

In India, 37% of generation alpha children aspire to become social media influencers, reflecting a significant shift in childhood ambitions from traditional career to digital stardom. According to the Qoruz Creator Tracking Analysis, the number of kid influencers (under 16 years of age) on Instagram in India surged to 83,212 by March 2025, with a notable 41% growth since April 2024, predominantly featuring young girls². There are platforms which connect brands with child and family content creators. These platforms handle safety compliance, parent-managed campaigns and user-generated content for toys, apparel and parenting products.

Global Position

Globally, Australia through its Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, implemented world’s first regulatory reform to establish a national minimum age of 16 (sixteen) years for holding accounts on designated social media platforms. Under the new Australian law, the obligation falls on social media platforms, and not on the parents or children, to take reasonable steps to prevent underage account creation. Similarly, in countries such as United Kingdoms, France, Spain momentum is gaining to follow a similar approach to prohibit access to social media accounts for children.   

Parallelly, in the United States, the courts have begun to hold social media companies accountable for the addictive design of their platforms and its impact on children. In a recent case against Meta Platforms, Inc.³ before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, it was claimed that Meta collects data of children under 13 (thirteen) years of age without parental consent and its algorithmically personalised recommendation feeds, infinite scroll, push notifications and engagement metrics such as public “likes” are designed to maximise compulsive use. On August 26, 2026, Meta reached a $17 billion settlement and agreed to a default 2-hour daily usage limit for users under 18 years of age; an overnight lockout from midnight to 6:00 a.m. removable only by a parent; default notification blocks during nighttime and school hours; suppression of like and reaction counts on minors’ posts; elimination of cosmetic surgery filters for minors etc. Hopefully, this may be a huge step forward in safeguarding against excess online exposure for young minds.

The Road Ahead

It is hard to ignore that social media has a negative impact on children leading to attention deficit, cyberbullying and neurocognitive impacts including self-esteem issues and body image concerns. However, an umbrella ban on access to social media for children under the age of 16 (sixteen) is not a viable solution and is technically difficult to implement as it may push young users to access and use unregulated platforms and shift to virtual private networks.

Rather than relying solely on age-based prohibitions, the Indian legislators may consider on improving the accountability and credibility of social media platforms. Social media platforms that are designed around highly addictive, short-form, dopamine-driven content could be restricted for children below 13 (thirteen) years of age and access for adolescents aged 13 (thirteen) to 16 (sixteen) years may be allowed only through mandatory age verification and verifiable parental consent, consistent with existing privacy and data protection laws. Further, platforms should be required to introduce child-specific safeguards such as limits on endless scrolling, algorithmic amplification and targeted advertising, which can negatively affect children’s attention span, concentration and cognitive development.

Further, considering heavy reliance by students and educational institutions on platforms like WhatsApp, YouTube etc., for learning, educational content and announcements, efforts would need to be made to distinguish educational and supervised communication tools from entertainment-oriented social media designed primarily to maximise user engagement. Schools can play a meaningful role by restricting social media usage on school networks and integrating digital literacy and online safety modules into the curriculum.

Footnotes

^{1 2025 SCC OnLine Mad 13987.}

^{2 Economic Times Article - ‘Kidfluencers: Balancing compliance and reach’ (May 21, 2025),}

^{https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/kidfluencers-balancing-compliance-and-reach/121300192}

^{3 In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (4:22-md-03047-YGR (N.D. Cal.).}

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