Madras HC Urges Centre To Consider Australia-Like Social Media Ban For Children Under 16

The Madras High Court has expressed concern over children’s vulnerability to harmful online content, including pornography, while hearing a petition on the easy availability of explicit material on the internet.

A Bench of Justices G. Jayachandran and K.K. Ramakrishnan made the observations while disposing of the plea, which also sought directions to internet service providers (ISPs) to offer parental control or “parental window” services to users.

Referring to Australia’s recent legislation, under which social media companies must prevent children under 16 from holding accounts or face heavy fines, the court said the Union government may explore the possibility of passing similar legislation in India.

“Union of India may explore the possibility of passing legislation like Australia,” the Bench observed.

The court refrained from issuing major directions or guidelines, noting that the Supreme Court had last year made suggestions to the Centre and other stakeholders in a similar matter related to the rights of child sexual abuse victims, Bar & Bench reported.

The Bench expressed hope that the State and National Commissions for Protection of Child Rights would draw up a concrete action plan and implement it “in letter and spirit” to tackle the menace of child pornography.

It observed that awareness campaigns conducted in schools were inadequate and that child rights commissions were not fully discharging their responsibilities under the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.

On the role of ISPs, the court recorded submissions that intermediaries are governed by separate statutes and periodically review content under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. ISPs also submitted that objectionable websites are blocked when brought to their notice.

Despite this, the court noted that websites containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) continue to remain active. It stressed that effective control must exist at the user end through parental control applications.

“Ultimately, it is the individual’s choice and right to access such obnoxious material or to avoid it. As far as children are concerned, the vulnerability is high, so the parents’ responsibility is higher,” the court said.