The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, (NCPCR) on a petition seeking a comprehensive regulatory framework to protect children from social media risks. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the ministries of Women and Child Development and Law and Justice, tagging the plea with a pending petition for hearing on December 7.
Filed by an Indore-based school and its director of academics, the petition highlights severe concerns over underage social media access, cyber-bullying, grooming, sexual exploitation, and excessive screen time. It calls for mandatory age verification, verifiable parental consent, and strict age-based restrictions on account creation to curb platform designs that encourage compulsive use.
The plea emphasizes that schools and parents cannot tackle these platform-driven risks independently. It seeks a judicial directive for the Centre to establish a dedicated, enforceable regulatory framework prohibiting social media access for children below a prescribed age and regulating use for older minors.
