New Delhi: India is considering changes to its information technology rules that could prevent people below the age of 18 from creating social media accounts, putting the country at the centre of a growing global debate over how governments should protect children online.

The proposal is still under consideration and does not amount to a nationwide social media ban for minors at present. During a recent Supreme Court hearing, the Centre told the court that it planned to amend the IT intermediary rules to prevent users under 18 from creating social media accounts. The Supreme Court had also asked the government to consider whether children below 18 should be prevented from creating accounts without parental consent.

If implemented, India would join countries that have introduced or are considering age-based restrictions on social media. Australia introduced restrictions for users below 16, while Indonesia and Malaysia have also taken steps in this direction. The UK has passed restrictions that are due to come into effect.

The debate, however, is not simply about whether children should have unrestricted access to social media. Experts point to a second challenge: how India could enforce such a restriction without creating new privacy, surveillance and cybersecurity risks.

Why is India considering restrictions?

The discussion comes amid increasing concerns about children’s exposure to cyberbullying, harmful content, excessive social media use and other online risks.

The Economic Survey 2025-26 flagged social media addiction among people aged 15-24 and said it was strongly associated with issues including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and cyberbullying stress. These associations are among the concerns being cited in the broader debate around children’s social media use.

Cybersecurity expert Mukul Kumar told India Today Tech that he had seen families dealing with cyberbullying, mental health concerns and permanent digital footprints involving teenagers.

He argued that children are particularly vulnerable because social media platforms are built around engagement and commercial incentives rather than being designed specifically around children’s wellbeing. His comments represent an expert view on the potential harms and do not establish that every child’s social media use produces these outcomes.

The debate has also emerged internationally. Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, agreed to an $18 billion settlement in the US earlier this year over a lawsuit alleging that its platforms harmed children. Meta has denied wrongdoing.

What does Indian law currently say?

India does not currently have a blanket national law preventing minors from using social media.

However, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 defines a child as a person below 18 and requires verifiable parental consent before processing a child’s personal data. The provisions are scheduled to come into effect on May 13, 2027.

The proposed changes to the IT intermediary rules could therefore create a mechanism for platforms to verify the age of users and restrict account creation by those below the specified age.

Sarthak Dubey, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Mitigata, told India Today Tech that the proposed IT-rule changes would effectively provide the mechanism needed to enforce requirements that have existed in legislation but have not yet had a comparable implementation system.

The exact design of any such system remains an important question.

How could age verification work?

Countries considering social media restrictions have adopted different approaches.

Australia places responsibility for age assurance on social media platforms. Malaysia has used a government identification system for verification. India could potentially consider several models, including government-backed digital identity services, app-store-level checks or verification mechanisms operated by platforms.

One option discussed by cybersecurity expert Sarthak Dubey is DigiLocker.

Under such a model, a service could potentially confirm whether a user is above or below 18 without necessarily revealing the underlying identity document to a social media company. Dubey argued that this would provide a way to establish age while limiting the amount of personal information directly exposed to platforms.

Another possibility could involve Aadhaar-based checks or other identity-verification systems. However, each approach creates different questions about data retention, security and who controls the information.

The privacy problem with age verification

Age verification itself could create a new privacy challenge.

To prevent children from accessing a service, a platform or another authority must first establish the user’s age. Depending on the technology used, this could require identity documents, biometric information or other sensitive data.

Mukul Kumar warned that linking age verification with social media accounts could create surveillance and cybersecurity risks. If large databases identifying minors were created, they could potentially become attractive targets for criminals seeking information about children.

Facial recognition is another possible method, but it raises separate questions about biometric data collection and accuracy.

The experts cited by India Today therefore favour systems in which the platform receives only a limited confirmation — for example, whether a person is above or below 18 — rather than receiving the user’s underlying identity information.

Kumar suggested a model in which age is verified once and sensitive identity information is not retained by the social media platform. He also argued that the verification process should not result in a government database linking Aadhaar identities directly to individual social media accounts.

Enforcement could be harder than passing the rule

Even if India establishes an age-verification system, preventing minors from accessing social media could remain difficult.

Australia’s experience illustrates the problem. The country says millions of underage accounts have been removed, but research by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner found that eight out of 10 children were still using social media three months after the restrictions came into effect.

Experts cited by India Today said teenagers had found ways around restrictions, including using VPNs, entering false ages and accessing accounts belonging to older siblings.

Indonesia has also reported removing around five million underage accounts, but reports have indicated that some children continued accessing platforms by providing false birth dates or using adults’ identification or accounts.

These experiences suggest that an age restriction may reduce access for some minors without necessarily eliminating it altogether.

India’s scale presents another challenge

India’s size could make enforcement particularly complicated.

Mukul Kumar told India Today that India has hundreds of millions of social media users below 18 and that no country has attempted enforcement at a comparable scale.

A system designed for a smaller population may therefore require significant technological infrastructure, coordination and investment before it could operate effectively across India.

There is also a risk that poorly implemented restrictions could push teenagers towards less visible online spaces or encourage them to use false identities. That could make it more difficult for parents and authorities to identify harmful online activity.

What could happen next?

The government’s proposal is part of an ongoing policy and legal discussion rather than an already implemented nationwide ban.

The Supreme Court’s recent proceedings have brought additional attention to the question of whether minors should require parental consent to create social media accounts. The court has sought the Centre’s response, with the matter expected to be considered further.

Any eventual framework would need to address several separate issues: the age threshold, parental consent, verification technology, data protection, platform responsibilities, enforcement and safeguards against circumvention.

The debate therefore involves two objectives that need to be considered together — protecting children from documented online risks while ensuring that the mechanism used to provide that protection does not create disproportionate privacy or cybersecurity risks.

For India, the effectiveness of any future restriction is likely to depend not only on the rule itself but also on how age verification is designed, what information is collected and retained, and how effectively platforms can enforce the requirements at the country’s enormous scale.