The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a public interest litigation seeking a ban on social media access for children below the age of 13, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih refused to pass directions on the matter stating that taking policy decisions was under the government’s purview. The court told the petitioners to ask Parliament to enact a law, PTI reported.

The court, however, allowed the petitioner to approach the Union government regarding the issues highlighted in the plea.

The petitioner had argued that unrestricted access to social media would infringe upon children’s fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, including the right to health and dignity.

“The absence of meaningful regulatory oversight has transformed social media into an unmonitored psychological battleground, where minors are subjected to predatory algorithms, unrealistic comparisons, and deeply harmful content,” Bar and Bench quoted the plea as saying.

The petition had requested directions to be issued to the Union government to include mandatory parental control measures for children between the age of 13 to 18, such as real-time monitoring tools, stringent age verification and content restrictions.

It also called for stricter penalties to be enforced on social media platforms that fail to adhere to these regulations.

Additionally, it requested the government to initiate a nationwide digital literacy campaign to raise awareness among parents, teachers and students about the risks of excessive social media use.

On January 3, the Union government released the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules that proposed making verifiable parental consent mandatory for children to create accounts on social media platforms.

The draft rules published by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for public consultation said that the consent provided by a parent or a legal guardian must be voluntarily validated through a government-approved identity proof.

Also read: