Karnataka proposes social media ban for children under 16 in Budget

Karnataka has proposed banning social media use for children under 16, with Andhra Pradesh and the Centre weighing similar curbs as concerns grow over digital addiction and harmful content

The Karnataka government on Friday proposed banning social media use for children below 16 years of age, becoming the first Indian state to take concrete steps to implement the plan. Andhra Pradesh too announced its intention to introduce curbs on social media use for those under 13.

 

This comes within three months of Australia banning social media for under 16 for health and safety reasons. Several other countries in Europe are considering similar moves.      

 

“With the objective of preventing adverse effects of increasing mobile usage in children, usage of social media will be banned for children under the age of 16,” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday while presenting the state’s annual budget.

 

 

The government did not immediately explain how it intends to implement the ban or when it will be enforced.

 

Later in the day, Andhra Pradesh followed suit, with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu saying his government would look at ways to restrict social media access for children under the age of 13.

 

Referring to a proposal suggested by IT Minister Nara Lokesh, Naidu said the government would soon launch a programme to prevent children under 13 from accessing social media, likely within the next 90 days.

 

The government is also discussing possible regulations for the 13–16 age group. A decision will be taken based on wider consensus.

 

Not just the states, the central government is also considering a similar ban on social media usage by children under a certain age, an official said.

 

“The contours will have to be decided based on what is the age we want to go ahead with, and if the ban will be complete or allow some form of restricted access. We are discussing all possibilities with the stakeholders,” the official said.

 

Last month, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, during the AI Impact Summit, said that owing to the ill-effects of social media on children, the idea to ban usage altogether for those below a certain age and below had gained popularity.

 

According to Vaishnaw, age-based regulation has to be there, and that’s something which has now been accepted by many countries. ‘’It was part of our DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection) Act when we created this age-based differentiation on content which is accessible to young people,” Vaishnaw had then told reporters.

 

Flagging digital addiction as a key threat to the youth, the Economic Survey for 2025-26 had proposed that the government may consider age-based access limits. The Survey said the platforms should be made responsible for enforcing age verification and age-appropriate defaults, particularly for social media, gambling apps, auto-play features, and targeted advertising.

 

Implementation hurdles

 

Karnataka’s proposed ban drew sharp reactions from social media intermediaries, including Meta, which said that though it will comply with the ban as and when it is enforced, such restrictions should “apply equally across the many apps that teens use and not just a handful of companies”.

 

A company spokesperson said: “Governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites, or logged-out experiences that bypass important protections.”

 

Emails sent to Snapchat, Sharechat, Moj and other platforms remained unanswered till the time of the press.

 

Mohandas Pai, chairman of Aarin Capital and former CFO of  Infosys, said that while the announcement is good, the government should have debated the move before proposing it in the Budget, as the state’s track record of enforcing such bans is very weak, resulting in more power in the hands of officials who can harass people.  

 

“How does Karnataka enforce it? Because its jurisdiction is only the territory of the state,’’ Pai said, adding that it is more important to educate the young people and children rather than censorship.

 

If Karnataka’s proposal moves towards a binding framework, there are bound to be serious questions about legislative competence, overlap with central law, and practical enforceability, Garima Saxena, a senior research associate at tech policy think tank The Dialogue said.

 

“India’s platform-regulation architecture is already substantially structured through central legislation, including the IT Rules, 2021, while the DPDP Act creates a nationwide framework for children’s data. So the issue is not simply whether the objective is valid, but whether the instrument is legally coherent and operationally workable,” she said.

 

Prateek Waghre, the head of programmes at Tech Global Institute in Bengaluru, also said a blanket ban is a problematic way to respond to these challenges.

 

Harsh Walia, Partner at Khaitan & Co believes that platforms will need to operationalise robust age-assurance and age-gating measures and potentially adopt state-specific controls such as geo-fencing where requirements differ across state jurisdictions.