Karnataka HC Calls For Bringing Minimum Age Limit For Social Media Usage In India

The Karnataka High Court called for the introduction of a minimum age limit for using social media similar to the legal age for drinking liquor. A division bench of Justices G Narendra and Vijaykumar A Patil made this observation during the appeal by X Corp (formerly Twitter) challenging the June 30 single-judge order that rejected its request to remove the orders issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY).

Justice G Narendar proposed age-based criteria for the use of social media, emphasising the need to regulate it for school-going children. "Ban social media. I will tell you a lot of good will come. Today's school-going children are so addicted to it. I think there should be an age limit such as in Excise rules," he noted.

Previously, between February 2, 2021, and February 28, 2022, MeiTY used the powers granted by Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to release 10 Government Orders, instructing the blocking of 1,474 accounts, 175 Tweets, 256 URLs, and one hashtag. Twitter (Now X) contested the orders on 39 of these URLs.

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The High Court also commented that not only on social media, certain things present on the internet can also corrupt young immature minds.

"While children maybe 17 or 18, do they possess the maturity to determine what is in the best interest of the nation? This applies not only to social media but also to the internet in general; certain content should be removed as it can have a corrupting influence on young minds. The government should consider introducing an age limit for social media usage," the court further remarked.

The court imposed a fine of ₹50 lakh on X Corp amid the concerns of X Corp's legal representation that MeiTY had not informed users about the blocking of their tweets and accounts, and the company itself was prohibited from notifying them.

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The high court questioned the government, stating, "You do not release the order. He is not permitted to reveal the order. How is he going to defend himself"

The high court suggested that the government may need to make adjustments to the rules, as it is the government's discretion that leads X Corp to block user accounts, and the company cannot be left in a difficult situation.

However, the court emphasized that "when it comes to national security, everyone must be on the same page."

In response to the company's argument that it had informed MeiTY which orders it could comply with and which it couldn't, the bench stated that X Corp could not be the judge in the matter.

The court pointed out, "X Corp cannot be given the right to judge the content. If the content says 'Apple a day keeps the doctor away', you will interpret that as being against the doctor and the interest of the nation?"

The case's hearing was adjourned to Wednesday, during which the high court will rule on the interim relief sought by X Corp. The appeal's hearing will take place afterwards, as per the court's instructions.