Overview
- The Centre is holding stakeholder consultations on child safeguards for social media and has not taken a final decision on specific rules, officials said on Sunday.
- Electronics and IT Secretary S. Krishnan said India is studying global approaches to age limits and verification before deciding how to act.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Australia’s under-16 platform restrictions during talks in Melbourne on July 9, a move that has increased political momentum for similar options in India.
- Officials are weighing two main options: platform-level age restrictions that block under-16 accounts and device-level protections that would require a built-in 'minor mode' with tighter parental controls.
- Both approaches pose major questions about age verification, privacy, cross-operating-system implementation, enforcement and the need to coordinate rules with handset makers and app developers.