India social media ban for teens under 16: What we know so far

Better late than never is my early reaction to this development, on how India’s trying to protect children and teens from the damaging effects of social media. Several reports indicate India’s resolve to restrict social media access to young and minors is under deliberation at the very highest levels of the Indian government.

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From what we know so far, the Indian government isn’t looking at outright banning social media access for children and teens, drawing the line at restricting access to social media apps for anyone under the age of 16.

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According to comments made by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, he confirmed that the government is in discussions with “various social media platforms” regarding the rising menace of “deepfakes” and effective “age-based restrictions.” The internal consultations and discussions hint at finding the right way to regulate social media.

LSK Devarayalu of the Telugu Desam Party – an ally of PM Modi – has proposed a private bill of members, pushing for the outright ban of social media for children in India. Reports suggest his growing worry on how children are becoming addicted to social media. While this is still an early private member’s bill – not one that the government has introduced in parliament for discussion officially – it’s an indication of legislative intent to follow soon.

After Australia became the first country in the world to implement a blanket ban on social media for children under the age of 16 years, which officially came into effect in December 2025, several other countries like Denmark, France, Spain have followed with similar proposals. And it’s good to see India join this effort to curb the ill-effects of social media and protect the young.

Unlike Australia, reports indicate India isn’t considering a blanket ban on social media access for anyone under the age of 16. What’s being considered are different ways to target restrictions, which may include limiting access to certain features on popular social platforms. Age verification technology is also being considered strongly in this regard.

Proponents of these measures (myself included) point to enormous stakes on the line. Facebook and Instagram enjoy over 400 million and 450 million users, respectively. Over 90% of Indian teens are active on social media to the point of addiction. India’s Economic Survey 2025-2026 has flagged this mental health crisis in extremely strong language: “There is a high prevalence of social media addiction among those aged 15-24. Social media addiction is strongly associated with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and cyberbullying stress. Other issues plaguing Indian youth include compulsive scrolling, social comparison and gaming disorders. These lead to sleep disruption, aggression, social withdrawal, and depression, with adolescent populations especially vulnerable.”

Of course, the concerns are real as well. Any age-verification tech engineered for social good like restricting teens from accessing social media can be misused for creating a surveillance infrastructure. Imagine the scale of sensitive data that will be collected and how vulnerable it will be to cyber breaches.

The effective implementation of such a restrictive measure is also in question right now. Will this just signal Indian teens to migrate to lesser known, unregulated platforms? Indian states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa are also considering social media restrictions for teens, but how will they enforce these measures beyond their geographical boundaries is a big question mark.

In all of this, one thing is clear: India’s definitely inching closer towards regulating social media for teens and children under the age of 16. How that will happen exactly still remains to be seen. Whatever India ends up deciding, though, will have a huge impact on Meta and Google and other social media platforms.

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Jayesh Shinde

Executive Editor at Digit. Technology journalist since Jan 2008, with stints at Indiatimes.com and PCWorld.in. Enthusiastic dad, reluctant traveler, weekend gamer, LOTR nerd, pseudo bon vivant. View Full Profile