• Source:JND
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The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking a complete ban on the use of social media for children below 13. While refusing to examine the plea, the top court observed that it was a policy issue. However, the bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih granted liberty to the petitioner to make a representation to the concerned authority.

The petitioner in their plea referred to the severe physical, mental, and psychological impact of social media on the minds of young ones and sought direction from the apex court to mandate the introduction of robust age verification systems, like biometric authentication, to regulate the access of children to social media platforms.

While making observations, the bench said, "It is a policy matter. You ask Parliament to enact the law." The bench went on and said, "We, therefore, dispose of the petition with liberty to the petitioner to make a representation to the respondent authority."

The bench further added that if the petitioner made a representation, the court would consider the same within eight weeks. The petition was filed by Zep Foundation and sought directions to the Centre and other relevant authorities to incorporate provisions of mandatory parental controls for children between 13 and 18 years. Among the measures, it demanded real-time monitoring tools, strict age verification, and content restrictions in the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules.

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Filed through advocate Mohini Priya, the petition further sought to implement strict penalties on social media platforms that fail to comply with child protection regulations. Calling it a "pressing concern", the petitioner's counsel said, "This is not an issue about parental supervision. It needs some restricted age verification mechanism."

The plea outlined how the unregulated and unrestricted access of children below 13 years of age to social media platforms is causing an "unprecedented mental health crisis" in India. The plea said that India has been witnessing an alarming surge in depression, self-harm, anxiety, and suicide rates among children, with overwhelming empirical evidence establishing a direct correlation between excessive social media usage and declining mental health.

Given that, the petition also sought directions to the social media platforms to implement algorithmic safeguards to prevent the targeting of minors with addictive content, apart from a direction to the authorities to launch a nationwide digital literacy campaign to educate all stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and students on the harmful effects of excessive social media consumption.