BREAKING | Right To Access & Use Internet A Fundamental Right Of Every Individual Including Children : Supreme Court

In a significant pronouncement, the Supreme Court has declared the right to access and use the internet a fundamental right under Articles 21 and 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Every individual, including a child, has this right, the Court stated, adding that it would be absurd to deny this right to children altogether.

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran observed :

"..we have no hesitation in saying that the right to access and use the internet is a fundamental right of every individual under Article 21 read with Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Our children, irrespective of their age enjoy the same rights, and to deny the same altogether would be as absurd as saying children below a certain age do not have a conscience worth protecting or a freedom of speech worth expressing. The safety of our children and their freedom are not at odds with each other. Our children are entitled to both."

The bench made the observation while issuing directions to strengthen the mechanisms for detecting and removing child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) from social media platforms and other online services.

In the judgment, the Court discussed the issue whether children should be altogether shielded from the internet and social media for their safety.

It noted that right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) also includes the right to know and to receive and impart information and ideas. Describing the internet as a marketplace of ideas, creative expression and information, the Court said its value lay not merely in the information it contained but also in the access it afforded to adults and children alike. "For many children, particularly in remote areas, it is often the only source of learning and information," the Court observed.

It added that, for children with special needs, the internet was often the only place where they could find companionship with others like them.

The bench also noted that in the 2020 judgment in Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India held that "the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to carry on any trade or business through the medium of the internet is constitutionally protected as a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution." It refrained from expressing any view on whether the right to access the internet is, by itself, a fundamental right.

In Pragya Prasun & Ors. v. Union of India(2025), the Court recognized the right to digital access a fundamental right under Article 21. Taking a leap from these precedents, the Court declared the right to use internet a fundamental right, which cannot be denied to children.

Blanket Restrictions On Children's Internet Access Not The Answer, Says Court

The Bench acknowledged that the internet, as it exists today, is far from safe for children. However, it held that keeping children away from the internet because of the failures of intermediaries to detect and remove harmful material would amount to mistaking the victim for the problem.

The Court observed that children do not stop using the internet merely because the law prohibits them from doing so. Instead, they may move to other platforms and websites that are unregulated and potentially more unsafe.

It further noted that restrictions could make children who are being enticed or threatened online reluctant to report such incidents to their parents, guardians or trusted adults for fear of being reprimanded for using the internet.

"Any blanket restriction on the access of internet by children is nothing more than unproven measures of proven disproportionality," the Court observed, adding that no jurisdiction had so far been able to demonstrate that children were safer because of such measures.

The Court also expressed concern that age-based restrictions could require the identification and ascertainment of every user's age, involving the continuous collection and monitoring of sensitive data and creating a disproportionate risk of misuse and surveillance.

Court Leaves Scope For Proportionate Safeguards For Children

While rejecting blanket restrictions, the Court clarified that this did not mean there should be no age-based safeguards for children using the internet.

It observed that some safeguards were necessary to ensure children's online safety and regulate the content accessible to them.

The Court suggested that a system could place greater emphasis on parental consent, guidance and oversight concerning children's access to social media platforms, along with a dedicated "child mode" for their accounts.

Such safeguards could include making children's accounts private by default, restricting contact and messages from unknown adults, and moderating advertisements and content accessible to children.

The Court suggested that these measures could be implemented for pre-teens, with reasonable and proportionate means of verifying parental consent. It left the modalities of such measures to the Union Government.

The Bench also clarified that nothing in its observations would prevent the Union Government from restricting children's access to specific categories of content or services that are inherently harmful to them, such as adult-content websites.

The Court also issued a slew of directions to detect and remove CSEAM, , including the creation of a comprehensive national database to enable the identification and removal of such content across social media platforms.

Also from the judgment -Supreme Court Directs Union To Create National Database On Child Sexual Exploitation & Abuse Materials (CSEAM) For Removal Across Platforms