Delhi High Court refused to intervene on a PIL seeking ban or control on children's use of social media. The court said that the matter of restricting or controlling children's social media use is a policy matter and taking a decision on it falls within the jurisdiction of the Central Government. The High Court clarified that the court cannot direct the government to make any policy in this regard or ban the use of social media. The bench said that in such cases the government should take an appropriate decision considering all the aspects.
A bench of Justice V. Kameswara Rao and Justice Manmeet PS Arora directed to consider the petition as an application before the Central Government. During the hearing, the bench clarified that it is not the job of the court to give instructions to ban or control the use of social media for children. The court said that this is a policy matter and the government will have to take a decision on it. The bench asked the petitioner's counsel to give the Central Government an opportunity to consider the matter. The court asked the authorities to pass appropriate orders in this regard, but refused to set any specific timeline for this.
These demands were made in the PIL
In the PIL, the petitioner had sought direction from the Delhi High Court to direct the Central Government to consider preparing a law or guidelines to ban the use of social media by children below 13 years of age. In the petition, it was said that different rules should be implemented based on age to protect children from the possible side effects of social media. Additionally, the petitioner had sought to create a framework to control social media content for children aged 13 to 16 years.
'There may be a need to make a new law'
During the hearing, lawyer Nidhi Raman appearing on behalf of the Central Government said that the issue of banning or controlling the use of social media by children is a matter of consideration at the level of the Central Government. He said that there may be a need to make a new law to implement such provisions. Nidhi Raman told the court that any kind of restriction or regulation regarding the use of social media could have a cascading effect. In such a situation, before taking any decision, it will be necessary to have extensive discussions with the concerned stakeholders. It was also said by the Center that the petitioner's demand can be taken as a representation before the government.
Personal Data Protection Act was also cited
During the hearing, the bench asked the Central Government counsel whether any steps had been taken on this issue after the previous order of the Supreme Court. In response to this, the government informed that the Digital Personal Data Protection Act has been enacted. This law also makes provisions related to the protection of children's online privacy. At the same time, the petitioner's lawyer expressed concern about the presence of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on social media platforms. He urged the court to direct the Central Government to take a decision on the issues raised in the petition within the stipulated time.
Meta took steps to remove CSAM content, informed the court
During the hearing, the senior advocate appearing for Meta Platform assured the Delhi High Court that the company is continuously taking steps to control Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on its platform. The court was told that last year around 6 lakh posts related to CSAM were removed from Facebook, while around 2 lakh such posts were removed from Instagram. Meta said that necessary action is being taken to identify and remove such objectionable content on the platform.
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