The Karnataka High Court orally suggested on Tuesday that the Union government could impose an age limit for using social media, saying that “children are addicted to it”, reported Live Law.

“Children may be 17 or 18, but do they have the maturity to judge what is or is not in the interest of the nation?” asked Justice G Narendar. “Not only on social media, even on the internet, things should be removed, it corrupts the mind.”

The bench suggested that 21 years would be a good age limit, reported The Indian Express.

A division bench, which also comprises Justice Vijaykumar A Patil, is hearing an appeal filed by X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, against the Centre’s orders to certain accounts on the platform.

X Corp approached the division bench after a single-judge bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit dismissed its petition challenging the Centre’s order.

In June, Justice Dixit had upheld the Centre’s orders and also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on X, saying that it did not give reasons for not complying with the government demands in a timely manner. The judge said that he was convinced by the Centre’s argument that it not only had the power to ask X to take down tweets, but also to direct the company to block accounts.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Justice Narendar suggested that the government could extend the rules that are in place for online gaming to social media platforms. “When a user registers, he will have to give some material, just like in online gaming where a person not having Aadhar etc. cannot join... It will be a boon,” the judge remarked.

He added: “Ban social media, I will tell you a lot of good will come.”