At the outset, let me state that I oppose bans. What people read or watch should not be a state matter. A social media ban, however, is not straightforward. As childhoods fall into the addictive trap of screens and scrolling, it is time to roll out the stop button. In India as well, a stage has been reached where intent, action and policy must come together to rescue young lives from the rabbit hole they are dangerously falling into. In the words of Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, children are “living through the largest social experiment in history”, and it is toxic.
Two landmark judgements in the United States this week reaffirm the belief. A New Mexico jury has found Meta to be liable for failing to protect children from online dangers and knowingly endangering their mental health by hiding information on child sexual exploitation online. Undercover investigations recorded sexual solicitations aimed at minors. Meta has been charged with thousands of violations and a penalty of $ 375 million in a verdict that is being labelled a “watershed” moment by families of children whose deaths are blamed on social media.
“Social media’s Big Tobacco moment” is another closely watched judgment in which a 20-year-old woman, referred to as Kaley, has won $6 million in damages from Meta and YouTube. The court agreed with her petition that these platforms were negligent, designed to be addictive and led to her mental health issues, including depression, body dysmorphia, and suicidal thoughts. The court also ruled that the social media platforms were aware of their adverse impact on minors, yet failed to warn them adequately. This Los Angeles trial, considered a bellwether case, is the opening act as 41 American states, through thousands of consolidated lawsuits, try to shut all escape routes for big tech.
The implications of these two verdicts are immense. For the first time, companies like Meta, Snapchat, and Google are being held liable and accountable for how they design their platforms and push algorithms that entice. Importantly, for once, these companies do not have carte blanche to roll out apps while ignoring the well-being of tweens and teens. For years, experts, counsellors, and families of victims have been shouting about how these platforms play for profit. These wins show it was not empty noise.
India must watch these developments closely. Our numbers are not marginal. There are 253 million adolescents aged 10-19 in the country; all those who have access to a smartphone are vulnerable to digital temptations. Exposure to online content intensified during the pandemic lockdown, and isolation accelerated the normalisation of devices even in tier-2 cities. Since then, children in the country have not looked this gift horse in the mouth. A Niti Aayog report says kids as young as five spend 1.5 hours online and, from ages 6-10, squander 2.5 hours on social media and gaming, with 60 per cent already owning a smartphone. By the age of 16, at least six hours are wasted logged on to social media, chatting online and gaming. These numbers point out that India is like another country in the grip of the digital epidemic.
Karnataka’s proposed ban on social media for children under 16 aligns with this understanding. The state says the objective is to prevent “adverse effects of increasing mobile usage on children”. Andhra Pradesh is considering a similar action for children under 13. While the cut-off age for regulating social media can be debated, the objective should be construed positively. Across malls and restaurants, iPads have become babysitters, and a country that ranks second globally in child obesity could see the crisis deepen as teenagers stay indoors gazing at the screens as though enchanted. That this issue has gone mainstream in India is a battle won in itself; actions of States like Karnataka will also help nuance the definition of online child safety.
At the recent AI summit in New Delhi, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Prime Minister Modi to safeguard the young population, saying, “Protecting children is not regulation—it is civilisation.” France and several other countries, including Denmark, Malaysia, Indonesia, Spain, and Norway, are looking to follow Australia’s footsteps, which has set 16 as the legal age to access ten social platforms. UK lawmakers have rejected a complete ban, but the door is left ajar for the government to enforce harsh restrictions.
The two American lawsuits are a snapshot of what children globally, and those in India, are knowingly being exposed to. Importantly, they also confirm the lack of accountability, transparency, and unfair practices of enforcement by tech companies, wherein even predators access innocent children. If a ban safeguards even one young life from the sharks that play for profit, a family will live to fight another day.
Evidence of social media’s toxicity is screaming at us wherever we look. In The World Happiness Report 2026, online engagement is linked to declining well-being in adolescents. It finds social media’s negative impact on children to be more lethal than anticipated and points out that teenage, English-speaking girls are especially vulnerable. The report gives more credence to the US lawsuits by mentioning there is “consistent and converging evidence that the major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X, as they are currently designed and commonly used, are dangerous consumer products that harm adolescents at a massive scale. The evidence of harm—both direct and indirect—is so strong and comes from so many sources in so many countries that we believe policymakers around the world now have enough evidence to justify action to protect children and adolescents.”
View of the US Courthouse in Los Angeles on March 5, 2026. The Los Angeles trial awarded $6 million to a plaintiff citing depression and suicidal thoughts linked to social media.
| Photo Credit:
Allen J. Schaben/Getty Images
This is a stage where digital impact on our children can no longer be brushed under the carpet. Staring at gadgets without blinking and being oblivious to the outdoors is dysfunctional. Scrolling endlessly in bed behind closed doors is brain rot. Older teens are not posting frequently, and when they do, the story disappears in 24 hours, but it is naïve to consider this a positive. On the contrary, they stalk, silently and wordlessly, while an entire generation struggles with social skills. Some child experts interpret this as social media having peaked. I disagree. Instagram, Snapchat, and not WhatsApp remain the favoured means of communication through DMs (direct messages). Moreover, there is always a demographic cohort waiting in the wings to get their time in the social media sun.
In India, the internet is affordable and pervasive. Eight-five per cent of households in the country own at least one smartphone, using cheap data to scroll through social media, porn, or for gaming. Internet subscribers in the country are rapidly increasing; there are over 100 crore subscribers from 25 crore a decade ago. The numbers are overwhelming, and even if a fraction of these are children spending 3-7 hours online daily, as reported, we have a giant-sized problem.
Teachers complain that students are turning up to classes sleep-deprived, which, in an academically intensive system, is pushing them out. Gadget addiction is also the cause of disorders and negative thoughts. The Economic Survey defines digital addiction as “a behavioural pattern of excessive or compulsive engagement with digital devices or online activities that leads to distress and functional impairment”. This “persistent, excessive, or obsessive computer and online use” is breeding a generation that is highly strung, aggressive, and anxious. Those in their 20s for whom the digital age has been ubiquitous lack ambition and staying power. The challenges are mounting; AI is on the prowl, and by the time students graduate in future, many of their dream jobs may be in the hands of technology.
Today, AI is a big element of childhood and deserves its own space. There is ChatGPT for homework, misinformation, and critically, bots are being used as relationship partners. For a generation with emotions already on edge, life advice from AI is prepping them for a fall. Living in echo chambers, teens ask emotional questions framed to get answers they want to hear. Privacy is a misnomer; it is the first argument against a ban. Nevertheless, children (and adults) will expose everything willingly to ChatGPT.
Where India struggles, and the Economic Survey also flags, is the lack of extensive national data. With slightly more than anecdotal evidence, digital addiction and its impact on mental health will not have overarching interventions and policy decisions. But the World Happiness Report 2026 is categorical. Social media among adolescents is leading to rising levels of mental health issues. There is another side to this story.
Once the elephant in the room, social media has made the word “depression” without a clinical diagnosis a glamorous term, and quacks are taking advantage of it, sprouting like wild weeds on social media. There is an interplay between social media and mental health, but is India ready to accept it? Suicide remains a health crisis in India. Among the age group of 15-29, it is the most common cause of death. Social media is competitive, but never a therapist, and we must see it for what it is: no less than a drug that has addicted children, but without leaving physical evidence.
Meta platforms’ apps on a smartphone. US courts have fined Meta for failing to protect children from online sexual exploitation and mental health risks.
| Photo Credit:
Kenneth Cheung/Getty Images
After years of unfiltered access and unprecedented influence, we have reached an inflexion point. To understand the scale of the problem, what big tech did not say has to be weighed in. Social media was never promised to be harmless; most adults falter in its interpretation and, correspondingly, struggle with the limits of parental controls. A UNICEF report has highlighted that one in three young Indians has experienced cyberbullying in the country.
In the ongoing trials in the US, where even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been called to the dock, evidence given showed how over 5,00,000 children were targeted with sexually inappropriate messages daily on Facebook. Instagram’s former head of safety has reportedly acknowledged that Meta did not remove an account engaged in sex trafficking unless it was reported at least 17 times. Also taking the stand are families of victims. Fifteen-year-old Olivia, who met an adult on Snapchat and was the victim of a fentanyl pill that cost her life. Twelve-year-old Mathew, who took the TikTok choking challenge and died. Fifteen-year-old Riley, who killed himself after being blackmailed on Facebook. Sixteen-year-old Kristin, who killed herself after being bullied on Snapchat.
Indian case study
India is not isolated from these tragedies. The recent deaths by suicide of three minor sisters in Ghaziabad highlight how social media has penetrated across small towns and cities, but without checks and balances. The girls who were school dropouts were allegedly addicted to online Korean dramas and gaming. Their suicide note mentions that “Korean and K-pop were our life”. The girls were distressed after their father, reeling in debt, took away their phones to stop them from watching K-dramas and deleted their YouTube channel.
A view of the spot where the three sisters died after they allegedly jumped off the ninth floor of their residential building in Ghaziabad, on February 4, 2026. The sisters died after extensive social media and online content use, including K-dramas and gaming, highlighting risks in small towns with limited oversight.
| Photo Credit:
Sushil Kumar Verma
Social media and the screen remain a conduit, whether it is what children watch or what they consume. A generation is hurtling towards harm that far outweighs the benefits when introduced at a young age. Kids don’t even need to go looking. Someone will find their way to them, whether it is a paedophile, a drug seller or marijuana for vapes, which, although banned in the country, are easily accessible. Many fear a social media ban will have a similar outcome.
What other way is there? America, the land of technology, is saving its children from it. Moreover, a graded, balanced approach is facile in an environment where systems are flawless. With children far from voting age, it also will not be an election plank. Social media needs strength to handle it, and vulnerable adolescents are out of their depth. Australia forced tech companies to boot over half a million children off their platform or face penalties. Teens have found their way back, dodging age verification. Australian reports suggest 70 per cent of children between 10 and 16 are flouting the regulations with inputs from AI. However, it is the other 30 per cent who have implemented the ban who should be of interest.
There is confusion about how State restrictions will be implemented in practice. Will the ban stop once a child leaves Karnataka and enters, say, Delhi? And yet, baby steps. Any implementation is better than no action, and other States may get inspired. The kinks can be smoothed as we go along. Trust your child, but don’t have faith in social media and its exposure. For a system to be so ingrained and so quickly, weeding it out cannot be done overnight. It needs legislation, adult digital literacy, and parenting controls to be in sync.
Why allow a child to use a social media platform when a 10-year-old is not given the car keys or a cigarette? The damage may not be obvious, but it could be equally potent. As the lawsuits in America show, it is time for children to log off. “If you are 35 and get addicted to YouTube and Instagram, shame on you, but to take that preteen, to take that teenager whose mind is still developing…” a lawyer for a plaintiff in the US leaves it unsaid. Time has run out, and so have choices.
Jyotsna Mohan is a senior journalist and the author of Stoned, Shamed, Depressed and co-author of Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper.
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