Karnataka HC Asks Centre To Mull Age Limit For Social Media Users

A Karnataka High Court (HC) bench on Tuesday (September 19) reportedly asked the union government to consider establishing age limits for social media users in the country. 

As per The Economic Times, the HC said that social media platforms could verify the ages of their users through documents such as Aadhaar, on the lines of similar mandates for gaming platforms. 

The observations came while a bench, comprising Justices G Narender and Vijaykumar A Patil, was hearing an appeal filed by social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in connection with the Centre’s takedown orders pertaining to 2021 and 2022. 

During the course of the hearing, the bench observed that school-going children are addicted to social media platforms and it would be a ‘boon’ if ‘some sort of identification’ is made mandatory for registration. 

“The child – maybe 17 or 18 – does he have the maturity to judge what is in the interest of the nation, what is not in the interest of the nation? Users should be at least the age of 21 years,” noted Justice Narender, as per the report.

As per a Business Today report, the HC also said that a ‘lot of good’ will come out of banning social media, adding that there ought to be an age limit on the lines of excise rules. The matter has now been adjourned for hearing on Wednesday (September 20).

This comes nearly a week after the Indian government termed X a ‘habitual non-compliant platform’, in its filings with the HC, for failing to adhere to takedown orders. It also said then that the site was undermining the government’s role and the platform was ‘advocating a dangerous trend’ by being the final arbitrator of the government orders. 

At the heart of the matter is a flurry of orders issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block certain tweets and accounts. The microblogging site approached the HC last year seeking to dismiss the orders issued by the ministry under the Section 69A of the IT Act.

On the other hand, the government challenged the locus standi of Twitter’s plea citing foreign credentials of the platform, adding that only Indian citizens possessed the right to challenge fundamental rights to freedom.

Eventually, a single judge bench of the HC, in June, dismissed the social media platform’s petition and ordered it to pay a fine of INR 50 Lakh for not blocking the accounts within the deadline. Twitter appealed against the order and, earlier this month, a HC bench, comprising Chief Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice MGS Kamal, directed X to pay half of the amount for the time being. 

Last week, the company informed the HC that it has deposited INR 25 Lakh with the Registry in compliance with the previous order.