India’s evolving approach to digital child safety
At the national level, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 classifies everyone under 18 as a child. Rather than restricting access, it mandates verifiable parental consent before platforms process a minor’s data, while strictly banning targeted ads, behavioural tracking, and harm-inducing data practices. To operationalize this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is currently consulting stakeholders on the draft DPDP Rules, 2025 to finalise verification mechanisms.
Meanwhile, state governments are pushing for even stricter, localized controls:
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Karnataka has proposed a ban on social media for children under 16, paired with mandatory age checks and school-level digital wellness programs -
Andhra Pradesh plans to restrict access for under-13s -
Goa is actively reviewing similar age-restriction measures
Can India implement a blanket social media ban?
Experts believe India has the legal framework to introduce age-based restrictions on social media, but enforcing them across the country’s vast and diverse digital ecosystem would be far more challenging.
Ravi Goyal, Partner at Scriboard, a legal consulting firm, explained that the government could amend the Information Technology Act and intermediary rules to impose age-based restrictions, but such a move may face constitutional scrutiny under Articles 19 and 21, which deal with freedom of speech, trade, and privacy.
The biggest hurdle, experts say, is reliable age verification without compromising user privacy.
“While the draft DPDP Rules envisage government-recognised identity verification and even propose virtual token systems that confirm consent without exposing underlying identity documents, most social media platforms still rely on self-declared dates of birth,” pointed out Malcolm Gomes, Chief Operating Officer at Privy by IDfy, a DPDP compliance platform. Requiring every child and parent to repeatedly upload identity documents to multiple platforms could itself create new privacy and cybersecurity risks, he told Business Standard.
Mandar Patil, Executive Vice President at Cyble, an AI-native security platform, said privacy-preserving age assurance technologies could offer a better solution than either self-declaration or mandatory government IDs. However, such systems would require clear regulations, independent audits, and consistent adoption across diffferent platforms. Without uniform implementation, users may simply migrate to services with weaker safeguards.
Experts also highlighted India’s shared-device culture, uneven digital literacy, identity fraud, and the absence of a digital parent-child relationship registry as practical barriers to enforcing a blanket ban.
How does social media affect children?
The push for tighter restrictions stems from mounting evidence that excessive or unhealthy social media use can adversely affect the mental health and wellbeing of children and teenagers.
A recent study published in JAMA found that adolescents exhibiting addictive patterns of social media use were more likely to experience poorer mental health outcomes. Similarly, research by Imperial College London found that children who spend more than three hours a day on social media are at a higher risk of developing depression and anxiety during their teenage years.
Other studies have also linked problematic social media use to sleep disruption, cyberbullying, and lower self-esteem. However, researchers caution that the relationship is complex, with factors such as the type of content consumed, the quality of online interactions, and existing mental health conditions also influencing outcomes.
“A blanket ban on social media for under-15s may assist in reducing exposure to cyberbullying, harmful or self-harm-related content, social comparison, body-image concerns, and excessive screen use. However, it would be an oversimplification to assume that simply banning social media will automatically solve the mental health challenges that children and adolescents face,” said Dr Deepika Sharma, Clinical Psychologist at Asian Hospital.
According to Dr Sharma, the impact of social media varies depending on a child’s age, emotional vulnerabilities, the type of content they consume, and the level of parental supervision.
Delaying social media access can be beneficial for younger children, but for older teenagers, supervised and age-appropriate use is often more practical than an outright prohibition, she adds. “The focus should be on creating a safer digital environment rather than pushing children towards unregulated or potentially riskier online spaces,” she told Business Standard.
A safer digital ecosystem, not just a ban
Rather than relying solely on access restrictions, experts favour a layered framework that combines age verification, parental oversight, safer platform design, and greater accountability for technology companies.
“A ban addresses the access question, while governance addresses how a child’s data is collected, used, and protected. The two approaches complement rather than replace each other,” Gomes said.
Shubham Rangadal, Founder of BlockP, an AI-powered platform for blocking adult content, said protecting children online should focus on building a safer digital ecosystem rather than simply restricting access.
Rajesh Chhabra, General Manager at Acronis, a cybersecurity and data protection firm, added that responsibility should increasingly shift to platforms. He called for private accounts by default for minors, stronger moderation of harmful content, restrictions on behavioural profiling and targeted advertising, safeguards against unsolicited contact from unknown adults, and meaningful penalties for companies that fail to protect young users.
