Delhi High Court Asks Centre To Decide Plea For Guidelines Curbing Social Media Access For Children Below 13 Yrs
The Delhi High Court has asked the Central Government to consider a plea seeking guidelines for protecting children under 13 years by imposing curbs on access to social media and regulation of content for children between 13-16 years of age.
This comes after the Centre told the division bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora that the relief sought in the petition is in the domain of policy and if a representation is made, the same would be considered and decided in accordance with law.
Meanwhile senior advocate Arvind Datar, senior counsel appearing for Meta, one of the social media intermediaries, submitted that Centre while considering the representation generally takes the view of all the stake holders including the intermediary.
"If that be so, we deem it appropriate to dispose of the petition by directing the respondent no. 1 to consider that writ petition along with the note of suggestions filed on 20.08.2026 by the petitioners and pass a reasoned order on the same. Liberty shall be with respondent no. 1, if deem appropriate to give a hearing to the representative of the petitioners while considering the representation and note of suggestions," the court said.
The plea sought guidelines against circulation of inappropriate exploitative material affecting the psychological health of children and guidelines for imposing Overnight Curfews on the Access to Social Media Platforms for children from 13 to 16 years of age.
It also sought guidelines for Stricter implementation of the existing laws i.e. Information Technology Act, 2000; Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
The plea also sought directions to oversee the operations Respondent-social media intermediaries, so that proper Implementation of the Privacy Policies curated for children can be ensured.
Case title: MS KIRTI DUA AND ANR v/s UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
W.P.(C) 10485/2026 CM APPL. 48582/2026