Top Court Says No To Plea For Barring Kids Below 13 From Using Social Media

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to examine a plea seeking to prohibit children below 13 from using social media, observing it was a policy issue.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih, however, granted a liberty to the petitioner to make a representation to the authority concerned.

The plea referred to the severe physical, mental and psychological impact of social media on young minds and sought a direction to mandate introduction of robust age verification systems, like biometric authentication, to regulate children's access to social media platforms.

"It is a policy matter. You ask Parliament to enact the law," the bench told the petitioner's counsel.

The bench went on, "We, therefore, dispose of the petition with liberty to the petitioner to make a representation to the respondent authority." In case the petitioner made a representation, it would be considered within eight weeks, the court said.

The plea, filed by Zep Foundation, sought directions to the Centre and others to incorporate provisions of mandatory parental controls for children between 13 and 18 years, including real-time monitoring tools, strict age verification and content restrictions in the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules.

The petition, filed through advocate Mohini Priya, further sought implementation of strict penalties for social media platforms failing to comply with children protection regulations.

Calling it a "pressing concern", the petitioner's counsel said, "This is not an issue about parental supervision. It needs some restrict age verification mechanism." The plea was stated to outline the unregulated and unrestricted access of children below 13 years of age to social media platforms, causing an "unprecedented mental health crisis" in India.

India, the plea said, was witnessing an alarming surge in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide rates among children, with overwhelming empirical evidence establishing a direct correlation between excessive social media usage and declining mental health.

"Research studies conclusively demonstrate that minors who are overexposed to social media suffer from heightened psychological distress, social isolation, addiction-like dependency, and severe cognitive impairments," it added.

Unchecked digital engagement of minors was akin to a public health emergency, the plea said, and as per authoritative reports, India had over 462 million active social media users, covering 32.2 per cent of the total population, with mobile connectivity reaching 78 per cent.

The plea said around 30 per cent of the country's population comprises children between the age of four and 18 years.

It referred to reports from Maharashtra, to indicate 17 per cent of children aged 9-17 years spent over six hours daily either on social media or gaming platforms.

The plea sought a direction to social media platforms to implement algorithmic safeguards to prevent the targeting of minors with addictive content aside from a direction to the authorities to launch a nationwide digital literacy campaign to educate parents, teachers and students on the harmful effects of excessive social media consumption.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)