Karnataka, a state in southern India, has become the first state in India to impose restrictions on the use of social media by all persons under 16 years of age due to widespread concerns about the impacts of digital devices on younger generations.
During his budget speech on the floor of the assembly last week, Chief Minister Siddaramiah stated that this prohibition would help to remedy problems associated with children abusing the possible advantages of spending too much time on mobile phones.
“In enacting this prohibition, it is intended that as many children as possible will be protected from suffering harm from excessive mobile phone use,” says Siddaramiah.
There is currently no published timeline for when the ban will take effect, but this indicates a major shift in the way India is regulating children’s access to the internet.
Growing global debate over children’s social media use
In December, Australia was the first country to create a national ban for social media to all users 16 years and younger. This has led to similar discussions on what to do about social media access by minors in the U.K., Denmark and Greece.
With more than 1 billion internet users and approximately 750 million smartphone users, India is one of the largest social media markets in the world. For companies such as Meta, India has the largest global user base of Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp.
With younger populations spending more time on their mobile phones, there have been growing concerns around digital addiction, safety while online, and mental health.
Other states exploring similar restrictions
Across India the discussion around children’s access to social media is gaining traction. The neighbouring state of Goa is also looking at implementing their own restrictions on minors accessing social media. Andhra Pradesh’s legislators are even considering implementing restrictions for all minors under 13 years old from accessing social media.
At the national level, India’s Chief Economic Adviser has also called for age-based digital access policies to address the rising number of young people experiencing “digital addiction”.
These proposed policies reflect increased pressure on governments to regulate social media companies in a more aggressive manner. This pressure is coupled with increased concerns about the psychological and educational impacts of excessive screen time – further increasing pressures on regulatory bodies.
Experts question enforceability of social media bans
Child rights advocates and tech experts doubt governments can effectively enforce social media bans.
There are concerns that children will simply use fake IDs and accounts to get around age verification systems, making it impossible for authorities to enforce the ban on social media.
N.V. Vasudeva Sharma, the Executive Director of the Child Rights Trust, stated that monitoring compliance is challenging to work out effectively.
Instead of creating a blanket ban, Sharma proposed a focus on digital literacy, and training programs for children and their parents on how to use the internet responsibly.
Children in Karnataka have already started a campaign to cut down on screen time and focus on more reading and offline activities.
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Balancing regulation and digital access
The proposed ban is indicative of the growing difficulty that all governments face, as they continue to try to balance technological access with the need to protect younger users from possible harm.
While this will reflect a future trend towards more regulation, law-makers will need to figure out how to enforce the law and whether education and parental supervision will be more effective to accomplish these same ends.
As India’s digital population keeps growing, the conversations about how and when children will have access to social media will become increasingly intense.
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