No Facebook, Instagram for Indian kids below 16? PM Modi's Australia praise fuels debate over social media curbs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's praise for Australia's social media ban for teenagers has become the strongest signal yet that India could be moving towards introducing age-based restrictions on social media platforms.

During his bilateral visit to Australia on Thursday, Modi commended the country's approach to regulating online platforms, telling Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that Australia's work to protect society from harms linked to IT and social media was "inspiring the world."

Also Read: EU moves closer to kicking kids off social media


The comments come months after the Centre confirmed it was in discussions with social media companies over introducing age-based restrictions for children, and as multiple Indian states have already begun exploring their own laws.


Australia is becoming India's reference point

Australia currently has one of the world's toughest social media laws.

Its Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act, 2024 requires platforms to prevent children under 16 from accessing social media services using age-verification measures.

India has been closely studying that model.

Earlier this year, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw acknowledged that the government was discussing age-based restrictions with major social media companies, calling children's exposure to harmful online content "a problem which is growing day by day."

"We are in a conversation regarding age-based restrictions with the various social media platforms... the right way to go about this," Vaishnaw had said during the AI Impact Summit in February.

Officials at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have also indicated that India may not opt for an outright blanket ban. Instead, the government is exploring a "graded" framework where younger users could face stricter restrictions while older teenagers may be allowed access to certain categories of platforms or content.

The debate has moved beyond MeitY

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently flagged what it described as "serious, large-scale and systemic violations" affecting children on digital platforms and sought action-taken reports from multiple ministries, including MeitY.

Parliamentary committees have also questioned the government on the steps being taken to improve children's online safety and the feasibility of introducing robust age-verification mechanisms.

Meanwhile, the Economic Survey earlier this year warned that excessive digital consumption was becoming a growing addiction problem among both children and adults. It recommended age-based access controls and said platforms should be responsible for enforcing age verification and age-appropriate defaults, particularly on social media.

Taken together, these developments suggest that age-based regulation of social media is increasingly becoming a broader policy conversation within the government.

States have already moved ahead

Even before the Centre finalises its policy, several states have begun working on their own proposals.

Karnataka announced plans earlier this year to introduce a ban on social media use by children below 16, becoming the first Indian state to publicly back such a restriction.

Andhra Pradesh followed with an even more detailed proposal.

Also Read: Andhra Pradesh to draft law to restrict social media access to 13 year olds

The state is drafting legislation to restrict social media access for children below 13 while creating an age-appropriate digital ecosystem for teenagers. Officials are also exploring privacy-friendly age verification tools, including "age tokens" linked to DigiLocker, to help platforms verify users' ages without collecting excessive personal data.

The Andhra Pradesh government has said it is studying regulatory models from Australia, Singapore and Denmark while designing its framework.

However, internet regulation falls under the Union government's jurisdiction, meaning any nationwide framework from MeitY would ultimately take precedence.

India joins a growing global trend

India is far from alone in reconsidering children's access to social media.

Australia became the first country to legislate a nationwide minimum age for social media access. Denmark, Spain, Greece and the United Kingdom are also examining similar restrictions, driven by concerns over rising screen time, addictive platform design, cyberbullying, deepfakes and the impact of social media on children's mental health.

The debate has intensified as governments around the world grapple with how to regulate platforms that were largely designed for adults but now serve millions of younger users.

But a ban won't be straightforward

Any move in India would have enormous implications.

India is home to roughly one billion internet users and remains Meta's largest market by users globally across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. YouTube also has one of its biggest audiences in the country.

Also Read: Centre logs into chat on social media child lock

That means any age-based restrictions would affect hundreds of millions of users and force platforms to implement robust age-verification systems—something regulators across the world are still trying to solve.

The Centre has not yet indicated whether such restrictions would require a new law passed by Parliament or could instead be introduced through amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Industry and rights groups remain divided

The proposal has drawn mixed reactions.

Meta has said it would comply wherever governments enforce such restrictions, while maintaining that outright bans may not be the most effective way to improve children's online safety.

Digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has opposed blanket bans, arguing that making the internet safer is preferable to excluding children altogether.

"When a playground is unsafe, we fix the equipment and improve the guardrails instead of banning children from using it," the organisation has argued, warning that determined teenagers could still bypass age restrictions while losing access to the educational and civic benefits that social media can offer.