Should India Ban Social Media For Under-16s? Experts Split Over Policy

New Delhi : Following the United Kingdom's landmark decision to ban social media for children under 16 by spring 2027, a intense policy debate has ignited in India. With the Union Government already exploring age-gating mechanisms under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, legal, psychological, and tech experts are sharply divided on whether a blanket ban is viable for India’s massive, diverse youth population.  

The push for restriction is grounded in a worsening mental health crisis. The government’s recent Economic Survey explicitly linked high screen time among Indian youth aged 15 to 24 to rising anxiety, sleep disorders, and plummeting attention spans. State governments are already taking fragmented action; Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh recently announced intent for under-16 and under-13 bans, respectively. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also confirmed ongoing discussions with tech platforms regarding stricter age-based regulations.  

However, policy experts caution that a Western-style blanket ban could backfire in the Indian socioeconomic landscape."A blunt ban might offer a comforting illusion of control, but it risks harming the very children it seeks to protect by driving them into unmonitored spaces."— Child Rights Advocacy ReportPublic policy analysts argue that strict age-verification mandates invariably trigger a mass migration to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or push young users to the dark web.

Furthermore, because only 33% of women in India use the internet compared to 57% of men, a sweeping digital ban could severely restrict young girls in low-income households from leveraging the internet for education, social mobility, and future career planning.  Rather than a total ban, many experts advocate for forcing tech conglomerates to reconstruct their internal architectures—such as enforcing "duty of care" laws, disabling addictive algorithms by default, and banning targeted behavioral advertising to minors