3 min learnUp to date: Mar 6, 2026 04:25 PM IST
The southern Indian state of Karnataka, residence to the tech hub of Bengaluru, banned the usage of social media by these underneath the age of 16 on Friday, changing into the primary in India to hitch international requires extra scrutiny of minors’ digital utilization.
Considerations surrounding kids’s rising social media habit and publicity to unrestricted web entry have fired up a worldwide debate, prompting Australia to develop into the primary nation to ban social media for kids in December.
Britain, Denmark and Greece are additionally learning the problem and related issues are taking form elsewhere in India, one of many world’s largest social media markets.
“With the target of stopping opposed results of accelerating cellular utilization on kids, utilization of social media will probably be banned for kids underneath the age of 16,” state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who makes use of just one identify, mentioned in his annual finances speech on Friday.
He didn’t point out when the ban would take impact.
India is the world’s second-biggest smartphone market with 750 million gadgets and a billion web customers. For Meta , the nation is its largest market with the highest variety of customers on Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp worldwide. Lower than one-quarter of Karnataka’s inhabitants is underneath the age of 15, a report of a 2019-20 survey carried out by India’s federal well being ministry confirmed. The state has a inhabitants of 67.6 million, a 2025 presentation by federal authorities assume tank Niti Aayog confirmed.
Bengaluru, typically dubbed India’s Silicon Valley, is residence to international know-how corporations corresponding to Microsoft, Amazon, IBM , Dell and Google. Karnataka’s neighbouring state Goa can also be weighing an analogous ban, its IT minister mentioned in January, whereas in the identical month, a lawmaker from Andhra Pradesh state proposed a invoice to curb social media for kids. New Delhi ought to draft insurance policies on age-based entry limits to deal with “digital habit”, India’s chief financial adviser mentioned in January, drawing vast help.
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Some activists and tech consultants have, nevertheless, referred to as for measures to assist kids and oldsters develop wholesome and secure social media utilization, saying that age-based curbs don’t work as kids can bypass them with pretend identification paperwork.