Should children be prohibited from using social media? Give your arguments in the context of the growing demands of social media ban for children. What measures can India adopt to ensure child safety in the digital ecosystem. (15M, 250 Words)

The exponential growth of social media has transformed childhood experiences, but it has also exposed children to risks such as cyberbullying, addiction, and online exploitation. Recent child tragedies linked to screen overuse have renewed demands for blanket social media bans for minors, as seen in Australia’s under-16 ban proposal.

Need for banning social media for children:

• Mental and Cognitive Health Risks:
  1. Studies link excessive social media use with anxiety, depression, ADHD-like symptoms, and reduced attention spans.
  1. Children aged 10–15 spend 4–6 hours daily online, increasing compulsive behaviour by 30–40% due to engagement-driven algorithms.
• Online Safety Threats:
  1. Exposure to cyberbullying, sexual predators, violent and self-harm content.
  1. NCRB data shows child-related cyber offences rose over 400% during 2019–2023 in India.
• Physical and Social Development Concerns:
  1. Sedentary lifestyles, sleep disruption, eating disorders.
  1. Reduced face-to-face interaction and emotional regulation.
• Algorithmic Manipulation:
  1. Platforms optimise for attention, not child well-being.
  1. Personalised feeds make disengagement difficult.

Social media bans are ineffective:

• Technically Ineffective:
  1. Easily bypassed via VPNs, proxies, encrypted apps.
  1. After UK age-control rollout, VPN usage rose 1,800%.
• Privacy and Surveillance Risks:
  1. Age-verification via IDs or biometrics risks data breaches.
  1. Facial age-estimation tools show 25–35% inaccuracy for minors.
  1. Pushing Children into Unsafe Spaces: Bans drive children to unregulated platforms or dark web spaces, increasing harm.
• Exclusion Concerns:
  1. Disproportionately affects girls, LGBTQIA+ youth, rural and marginalised children
  1. Restricts freedom of expression and access to information.
• Misdiagnosing the Problem:
  1. Social media amplifies existing social issues such as patriarchy, isolation, and stigma rather than creating them.
  1. For example, India has 733+ million internet users, yet 57% women lack access. Thus, bans worsen digital inequality.

Measures that India can adopt:

1.    Child-Centric Digital Governance:

1. Redesign platforms around child safety by design.
2. Mandatory age-appropriate interfaces like UK’s Age-Appropriate Design Code.

2.   Platform Accountability and Regulation:

1. Shift burden from children to Big Tech.
2. Penalise algorithmic amplification of harmful content and dark-pattern engagement strategies.
3. Enact a Digital Competition Law.

3.   Privacy-Preserving Age Assurance:

1. Use layered age-assurance systems like device-level checks, behavioural signals and optional ID verification
2. Avoid single-point biometric solutions.

4.   Strengthening Redressal Mechanisms:

1. Cyber-trained nodal officers in state police.
2. Expand POCSO e-Box, panic-button tools.
3. Faster grievance redressal timelines.

5.   Digital Literacy and Mental Health Support:

1. Integrate cyber-safety curricula in schools.
2. Parental counselling and screen-time management.
3. For example, Kerala’s Digital De-Addiction (D-DAD) centres.

6.   Parental Involvement:

1. Joint parent-child accounts.
2. Screen-time tools like Google Family Link.
3. Community-based awareness programmes.

Conclusion:

As societies transition from “open access” to “safe access”, India must build a privacy-preserving, child-first digital ecosystem that safeguards children without excluding them from the empowering potential of the digital world. “The solution to digital harm is not digital silence, but digital responsibility.”

‘+1’ Value Addition:

• Nature Human Behaviour says Adolescent brains are neurologically more vulnerable to algorithmic reward loops.
• UNICEF (2021): Blanket social-media bans may violate CRC principles – best interests, participation, and access to information.
• Instagram Teen Safety, 2023 shows “Quiet mode” and nudges reduced teen screen time by 20% without bans.
• OECD points out that over-regulation can cut youth digital skill formation by 15–20%.
• Karnataka Cyber Hygiene Curriculum resulted in 30% fall in cyber-bullying complaints in pilot districts.

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