India’s Karnataka announces plans to ban 16-year-old media

The Indian state of Karnataka, home to the tech hub of Bengaluru, wants to ban children under 16 from using social media, joining a growing global movement to ban young people from using online platforms despite questions about coercion and ethics.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced the decision during the state’s budget speech on Friday. “In order to prevent children from using mobile phones, the use of social media is prohibited for children under the age of 16,” he said. he said. He did not elaborate on how the restrictions would be implemented.

The Karnataka state government did not discuss the restrictions ahead of time, two sources in various tech companies told TechCrunch.

Governments all around the world have been moving to ban children from using social media after years of concern about how platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram affect young users and vulnerable people. Australia became the first country to ban TV for teenagers last December, and several other countries are following similar plans.

Indonesia said on Friday it would block entry to “high-risk platforms” such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and Roblox for users under the age of 16. Malaysia has also indicated that it is reviewing the same.

The dispute has become more serious in India, with the Indian authorities of Goa and Andhra Pradesh recently claiming to be in trouble. learning similar restrictions. In December, the Madras High Court urged the government to consider Australia’s ban on children’s use of social media, and a month later, India’s chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran provided age-based restrictions on social media sites he described as “exploitative.”

A spokesperson for Meta told TechCrunch that the company supports measures that help parents control the use of apps by teenagers, but cautioned against online restrictions.

“Governments considering bans need to be careful not to force young people into unsafe, unregulated environments, or activities that bypass basic security measures – like the security we provide on Instagram Youth Accounts,” he said.

Meta said it will enforce restrictions where they are enforced, but said that since young people use about 40 apps a week on average, restrictions that target only a few platforms may not increase security.

Legal experts question whether India has the power to ban this. Aparajita Bharti, co-founder of technology and policy consultancy The Quantum Hub, said the announcement seemed more about intentions than concrete ideas.

“It is unclear whether the Karnataka government has the legal authority to do this,” Bharti told TechCrunch. He said policymakers should consider India’s unique challenges – such as shared infrastructure and the digital divide – rather than “blindly following” models adopted in the West.

He added that the Australian ban was not yet confirmed, and that more internet security measures would be needed.

Kazim Rizvi, director of the New Delhi-based think-tank The Dialogue, said that most internet policy laws are under the jurisdiction of the Indian government, which would prevent other countries from banning them.

“The government can articulate the objective of child protection, but a binding, platform-oriented ban would be too difficult for the government to take care of itself without interrogating the Centre-State and the constitution,” he said.

Digital rights activists have raised concerns about unreasonable restrictions on children’s access to social media. In response to a request by the Karnataka government, the Internet Freedom Foundation he said such methods raise questions about enforcement and may require age verification systems that pose privacy risks to users.

The group also warned that more restrictions could limit children’s access to information and expression, and widen India’s digital gender divide if families use such methods to keep girls online.

“Protecting children online requires broad, evidence-based policies, not subjective restrictions,” the group said.

India’s IT ministry and the Karnataka chief minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Google, Snap, and X also did not respond to requests for comment.