The Union government is benchmarking international legislative frameworks on online child safety as part of an ongoing review of India’s digital ecosystem, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Vaishnaw stated that domestic policy updates are being evaluated through a consultative approach, balancing international regulatory precedents with constitutional safeguards, user privacy, digital inclusion, and local technological requirements.
Outlining existing statutory protections, the minister highlighted that the IT Act, 2000, and the IT Rules, 2021, mandate strict due diligence for intermediaries. Social media platforms are legally required to inform users against sharing material harmful to minors, report child sexual abuse material (CSEAM) directly to law enforcement under the POCSO Act, and take down unlawful content within three hours of receiving a court order or government direction. He added that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, further fortifies child privacy by mandating verifiable parental consent and banning behavioral tracking or targeted advertising aimed at minors.
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To complement legislative enforcement, MeitY’s Information Security Education and Awareness initiative has conducted over 6,650 workshops reaching 11.37 lakh participants, supplemented by cyber safety guidelines from CERT-In, the Ministry of Education, CBSE, and NCERT. The government’s parliamentary statement follows recent regulatory pressure on Meta, including a MeitY show-cause notice and an inquiry by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) after a BBC Eye investigation alleged Instagram carried advertisements promoting CSEAM.
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