NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea seeking safeguards for minors accessing social media and other digital platforms and seeking directions to prevent platforms from entering into contracts with children below 18 without parental or guardian consent.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notices to the Centre and other respondents on a petition filed by the NGO Just Rights for Children Alliance.
Senior advocate H S Phoolka appeared for the NGO. The Bench orally observed, “We need some safeguards in India,” while issuing the notice.
The petition alleged that despite penal provisions prohibiting the dissemination and storage of child sexual exploitation and abuse material, internet platforms had failed to adequately deploy automated content-filtering tools and age-verification mechanisms.
The plea pointed out that platforms including Facebook and Snapchat India permit users to create accounts from the age of 13, while Indian law treats persons below 18 as minors.
The petitioner has sought amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, or the framing of specific guidelines. It has sought safeguards under which platforms would not enter into contracts with children below 18 without the consent of a parent or lawful guardian.
The plea has also sought identity verification or e-KYC of the parent or guardian as part of the proposed safeguards.