New Delhi: “Firewalls” are necessary to safeguard the rights of children, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday while seeking the Centre’s response on a petition asking for restrictions on social media use by minors.
While issuing notice on a petition filed by a non-profit child rights body, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said: “There is need for some safeguards in India. Some firewall is necessary for protecting our children”, as reported by Hindustan Times.
The Just Rights for Children Alliance, in its petition, pointed out that social media intermediaries and digital platforms allow persons above 13 years to open accounts.
Minors are incapable of entering into any contract as the Indian Contract Act summarily declares a minor’s consent for an agreement to be void right from the time such an agreement comes into existence, it argued.
The matter requires to be examined as the petition highlighted various instances of how minors are being subjected to crimes, sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, and trafficking on various digital platforms, the bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, agreed.
Senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the petitioner, said: “It is well settled that an agreement entered into by a person who was a minor on the date of execution is void ab initio under section 11 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. Yet, we are seeing that children below 18 years are permitted to independently create and maintain accounts on social-media platforms and access digital platforms.”
Opening of an account on social media or digital platforms requires children to accept terms of service, user agreement, privacy policies, etc and this cannot be permitted when the law in the country does not recognise the right of a person below 18 years to enter any contract, he noted.
The petition, however, made an exception for permitting access to lawful, educational and age-appropriate digital content through accounts maintained and controlled by their parents or lawful guardians, subject to an appropriate regulatory framework.
The issue also raises privacy concerns, Phoolka stated. The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023 recognises the special vulnerability of children and requires verifiable parental or guardian consent for processing personal data of a child. Even the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 are silent on the contractual capacity of a minor to access and use the services of social media intermediaries or digital platforms.
The petition urged the Centre to step in and declare all such accounts opened by children to be void. Till such time the guidelines are framed in this regard by the Centre under the 2021 IT Rules, the petition requested the court to pass a direction restricting any digital platform from entering into a contract with a child under 18 years.
There are restrictions on social media use by children in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Several countries including the United Kingdom and Canada have proposed ban on social media use by persons below 16 years but the same has not yet been implemented.