The Supreme Court of India has asked the Central Government and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regarding the safety of children on social media platforms. The plea, filed by Emerald Heights International School in Indore and its director of academics, Siddharth Singh Girnar, argues that current safeguards are insufficient to protect minors from digital harms.
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Indian children
A bench consisting of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the NCPCR. The court has tagged the plea, submitted by Vaibhav Choudhary, with an existing pending petition and scheduled the next hearing for December 7.
The petition contends that the failure to implement an effective protection framework against grooming, sexual exploitation, cyber-bullying, and exposure to age-inappropriate content is a violation of the Constitution, specifically referencing Articles 14, 15(3), 21, and 21A. The school is calling for the introduction of mandatory age verification, verifiable parental consent, and a dedicated regulatory framework to monitor how commercial social media platforms operate in relation to children.
Beyond legal frameworks, the plea highlights the practical challenges faced by educators and parents. The petitioner notes that children are frequently contacted by strangers and targeted for harassment. It specifically points to behavioral changes in students, including sleep deprivation, diminished concentration, and social withdrawal, which the school argues are linked to the “compulsive-use design” of these platforms.
The school asserts that the responsibility cannot fall solely on parents and teachers, as the risks are embedded in the technical design of the platforms, which encourage prolonged engagement. The plea specifically identifies vulnerabilities to blackmail, the circulation of private images, and exposure to material related to self-harm and violence.
The litigation seeks a mandate for the Centre to prohibit social media use for children below a specified age and to enforce strict, age-based restrictions on account creation and maintenance for those above the threshold.
Author`s name Petr Ermilin
News Correspondent at Pravda.Ru, working for the English edition of the site.
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